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Coronavirus: Hongkongers lose HK$222 million in romance and telephone scams during Covid-19 crisis
- Nearly 270 people fall for love cons in city amid sharp rise in confidence tricks over first few months of the year
- Tricksters capitalise on pandemic by targeting people spending more time at home on the internet, police source says
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Confidence tricksters have been busy targeting Hongkongers during the Covid-19 crisis, with a sharp rise in reports of romance and telephone scams that left victims poorer by HK$222 million (US$28 million).
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Nearly 270 people – mostly women and aged up to 85 – fell for love scams during the first four months of the year, reporting they were duped of HK$82 million by foreigners they met online.
It was a 54 per cent rise in such cases year on year, and the money lost was 28 per cent more than over the same period last year.
Telephone scams — where callers pretended to be family members or friends in trouble or bogus officials — surged to 348 reports involving HK$140 million between January and April. The cases more than doubled from 165 over the same period last year, while the total sum shot up 250 per cent.
A police source said the rise in love scams suggested the con men exploited the Covid-19 pandemic by targeting people who were spending more time at home and surfing the internet.
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The 267 victims were aged between 17 and 85, and almost nine out of 10 were women.
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