Women warned on bogus job scheme

Police have warned job-hunters, especially women, to beware of con artists who lure people into bogus jobs then cheat them out of their savings.

In the past seven months, 110 women have been cheated out of more than $16 million, police say. They believe the number could be much higher because the swindlers tell their victims the activities in which they lose their money are illegal and many fear prosecution if they complain.

Chief Inspector Boris Kwan Woon-man, of the Commercial Crime Bureau, said victims attracted to jobs in bogus trading companies were lured by fraudsters posing as workmates into buying low-priced goods such as crystals and diet pills from their employers to sell at a profit.

After victims invest big sums, they are told buyers, usually in Taiwan and Japan, no longer want the goods and thereby lose their money.

'The victims are later dismissed by the companies, which also threaten to take legal action because the transactions they have been involved in are illegal, so some victims do not report their case to the police,' Senior Inspector Lisa Chau Kar-kin said.