Hong Kong university student arrested for allegedly conning 2 out of HK$1.6 million
- Engineering student, 18, is suspected of scamming elderly woman out of US$59,000 by pretending to be mainland public security officer
- He also duped a man, 40, out of HK$1.2 million last year through same fake-official scam
Hong Kong police have arrested a university student on suspicion of swindling two residents out of more than HK$1.6 million (US$205,000) in two separate phone scams, the Post has learned.
The engineering student, 18, was apprehended at his Mong Kok flat on Sunday, a source familiar with the case on Monday said.
Officers from the Tseung Kwan O unit started investigating the case after an 87-year-old woman fell prey to the scam and lost 420,000 yuan (US$59,000) in July last year.
The retiree received a phone call on June 23 last year from a Mandarin-speaking person posing as an official from the Shanghai Public Security Bureau and accusing her of being involved in a fraud case.
The source said that during the telephone conversation, the elderly woman revealed her personal information, including her home address, as instructed for asset verification.
On June 29, the teenage boy allegedly paid a visit to the woman’s Tseung Kwan O flat and claimed he was a mainland Chinese public security officer, according to the insider.
He said an investigation showed the teenager took her to Shenzhen, where she applied for online banking services for her account in a mainland bank. She also gave him her bank card and disclosed her personal account details.
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The woman realised she had been deceived on July 3 when she found 420,000 yuan had been transferred out of her bank account. She then filed a report to police on the same day.
“An investigation revealed the money was transferred out of her account between June 30 and July 2,” the insider said.
Fake documents, such as a forged authorisation certificate purportedly issued by a public security bureau, were seized in the student’s flat
According to the force, the investigation revealed the teenager was also linked to two other cases.
2 arrested on suspicion of cheating Hong Kong elderly woman out of HK$3.3 million
A clerk, 40, also fell victim to the scam and was duped out of HK$1.2 million in August last year. A phone scammer pretending to be a mainland public security officer called the worker on July 6 and accused him of being involved in a fraud case.
On the same day, the teenager allegedly went to the Mong Kok flat of the victim and coaxed him into providing his bank account details, such as the password, for “investigation” purposes.
The victim discovered it was a scam on August 4, when he found HK$1.2 million had been transferred from his bank account into two mainland ones, according to the source.
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The insider said the investigation showed the suspect had also gone to a housewife’s Tseung Kwan O flat earlier this month in an attempt to commit the same crime. But she did not suffer any losses in the incident.
Police said the suspect was detained on suspicion of obtaining property by deception – an offence punishable by up to 10 years in jail.
As of Monday morning, he was still being held for questioning.
