Scammers swindle Hong Kong man out of HK$430,000 in the space of four hours on WhatsApp
- The scammers hijacked the man’s sister’s account and lured him into buying points cards for online games to resell at a profit
- It is the biggest sum defrauded in several hundred recorded in Hong Kong over the past year
A 48-year-old man has become the biggest victim of a WhatsApp scam in Hong Kong after being defrauded of HK$430,000 (US$55,000) in four hours.
Initial investigation showed the scammer hijacked the WhatsApp account of the victim’s elder sister and used her account to send him text messages and lure him into buying points cards for online games, according to law enforcement sources.
“The victim was told he could make a profit by buying the points cards and selling them,” one source said.
The Hong Kong man, who works as a customer service officer, first received the text message soon after 2pm on Wednesday.
In a period of four hours, the victim made more than 50 transactions that were paid in cash and credit cards in a convenience store on Castle Peak Road, Tuen Mun. He also gave all the PIN codes for the cards to the swindler, who posed as his sister.
He realised it was a scam when he contacted the sister. He then called police at 6.16pm on the same day.