Vigilant Hong Kong bank worker foils ‘guess-who-I-am’ phone scam, saving HK$200,000 in potential losses for victim
- Scam victim, 85, had already lost HK$100,000 in earlier part of ruse, with suspect arrested after returning to collect extra money on second run
- Trickster pretended to be son of elderly couple, claiming he needed bail money as he had been detained by police over a criminal investigation
A bank employee in Hong Kong has helped thwart a HK$200,000 (US$25,700) scam attempt on an 85-year-old woman, leading to the arrest of a suspect in the “guess-who-I-am” phone deception case.
The victim, who lives in a Sheung Shui public housing flat with her husband in his nineties, received a call from a man on Thursday morning claiming to be her son.
“The caller impersonated her son and claimed he was being detained over a criminal case and needed HK$100,000 as bail money for his release,” police said on Friday.
The woman was told someone would go to her flat to collect the money. At about 2pm, a scammer arrived to pick up the money from her.
About an hour later, the woman received another call from her “son” who claimed another HK$200,000 was needed for his release. She then went to a nearby bank to withdraw the money at about 4pm.
The scam came to light when a suspicious teller questioned why the woman needed to withdraw such a large amount of cash. The bank employee then called police.
Officers from the Tai Po criminal investigation unit ambushed and arrested a 26-year-old man on Chi Cheong Road in Sheung Shui at about 7.30pm on Thursday when the suspect turned up to collect the money from the woman.
A police source said an investigation showed the suspect was also the same individual who earlier collected HK$100,000. That sum has not been retrieved in the case.
The man was detained on suspicion of obtaining property by deception – an offence punishable by up to 10 years in jail under the Theft Ordinance.
As of Friday morning, the suspect was still being held for questioning. Police said the investigation was continuing and further arrests were possible.
“Guess-who-I-am” scams usually involve swindlers pretending to be a relative of a victim or a friend in urgent need of money.
Scammers will contact victims by phone and ask them to guess their identity. Once the target mentions a name, the tricksters then pretend to be that person and come up with a plea for money.
The ruse is one of the three most common used in phone scams in the city, with the other two involving swindlers pretending to be officials or kidnappers.
Police handled 780 cases of “guess-who-I-am” phone deception with a total loss of HK$58 million in the first nine months of 2022.
In another common swindle called the “fake official” phone scam, fraudsters duped 906 victims out of a total of HK$663 million between January and September this year.
In all, police handled 1,687 reports of phone scams in the first nine months of 2022, up 130 per cent from 735 cases in the same period last year. The total amount of money involved rose 8 per cent to more than HK$721 million between January and September this year, up from HK$667 million in the same period last year.
