Hong Kong’s biggest phone scam: retiree, 78, arrested for posing as ‘spy’ in HK$250 million case
- Man arrested after 12-month police investigation revealed he was recruited by phone scammers
- Police suspect scammers paid him more than HK$20,000 for his part in the ruse
A 78-year-old retiree has been arrested for his part in Hong Kong’s biggest phone scam, involving a 90-year-old woman duped out of HK$250 million (US$31.9 million).
He was allegedly recruited by fraudsters to pose as a mainland Chinese agent to “spy” on the victim. The man was arrested during a raid on his public housing flat in Kowloon on Wednesday, after a 12-month investigation, police said.
Chief Inspector Mok Tsz-wai of the Kowloon East regional crime unit said the investigation suggested that scammers paid him more than HK$20,000 to be “responsible for delivering a mobile phone to the victim, and escorting her into a bank to do money transfers”.
The mobile phone was used by con artists to monitor the victim, who had been instructed to regularly report her movements.
He has been detained on suspicion of obtaining property by deception – an offence punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
The man is the second suspect detained by police in connection to the scam. They have recovered HK$10 million from two bank accounts used by the swindlers.
Officers arrested a 19-year-old male student in March last year, also in connection to this case.
The 90-year-old woman living in a mansion on The Peak was conned out of HK$250 million between August 2020 and January 2021 after scammers convinced her that her identity had been used in a serious criminal case on the mainland.