Coronavirus: con artists swindle thousands of Hongkongers in face mask scams totalling HK$48 million
- Local firm was hardest hit after international fraudsters conned it out of HK$20 million (US$2.6 million)
- More than 3,000 victims in the city over first three months of this year
Coronavirus con artists scammed a Hong Kong clinic out of HK$20 million (US$2.6 million) in a surgical mask fraud, police have revealed.
The clinic was just one of more than 3,000 victims in the city who were caught up in online scams, which resulted in crooks swindling people out of over HK$48 million (US$6.2 million) in the first three months of this year.
A local firm that runs a clinic in the city was hardest hit, after international fraudsters posing as a face mask supplier in Europe deceived the firm in February into transferring HK$20 million into 14 bank accounts in the United States, Portugal, Spain, the Netherlands, Germany, Poland and Turkey.
In an unprecedented operation to track down the stolen money, Hong Kong police recovered HK$15 million in cooperation with overseas law enforcement agencies, according to Senior Inspector Yonny Yeung Yung, of the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre.
The victims realised they had been conned when they never received any ordered goods and the sellers could not be contacted
Some of the cash had been transferred to a bank account in France, but was also intercepted, one police source said. The remaining HK$5 million was pocketed by swindlers.
The company fell victim to the scam after it left an online post along with its email address, hunting for epidemic prevention supplies in early February.