Conmen move into luxury premises to swindle $14.5m from job hunters
Street confidence tricksters have moved their operational bases to luxury offices in high-rise commercial buildings, cheating 67 job hunters out of $14.5 million in the past six months.
Police said yesterday the victims - all women - were cheated out of an average of $210,000 each after they were offered attractive salaries for unskilled work as cleaners, messengers and clerical assistants. Officers said the fraudsters set up trading companies and placed job advertisements in newspapers to find their potential victims.
'The jobs were attractive as potential victims were offered a monthly salary of between $5,000 and $6,000 but were only required to work half-days.
'Their work was simple and involved cleaning and making tea or coffee,' said Senior Superintendent Chan Yiu-kwok, of the Commercial Crime Bureau.
After accepting the jobs, conmen posing as their colleagues lured the victims into buying low-priced items including medicine, electrical goods, toy cars, silk scarves and ties from their companies and selling them to make a profit.
'They were promised that buyers were available and that they would receive a profit of between 30 and 40 per cent on their investments, Mr Chan said.
