Hong Kong housewife swindled out of HK$7.1 million after investing in cryptocurrency via bogus platform

Woman, 46, files report to police more than year after being coaxed into transferring money into 15 bank accounts

‘She became suspicious only when she could not contact two online scammers and withdraw money from the trading platform,’ insider says

2-MIN READ2-MIN

Police have urged residents to use the official Scameter platform to detect possible fraud. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 1:59pm, 20 Mar 2024Updated: 3:03pm, 20 Mar 2024

A Hong Kong housewife has been duped out of more than HK$7.1 million (US$908,000) after being tricked into using a bogus trading platform to invest in cryptocurrency, the Post has learned.

The woman, 46, realised she had been scammed and filed a report to police last Tuesday, more than a year after she was coaxed into transferring the money into 15 designated bank accounts for “investment”.

A source familiar with the case said on Wednesday that the victim did not receive any profits during that period.

“She became suspicious only when she could not contact two online scammers and withdraw money from the trading platform,” the insider said. “She found out it was a scam when she discussed it with her family.”

The victim filed a police report last Tuesday. Photo: Sun Yeung

He said one of the fraudsters approached the woman through Instagram in July 2022 before tricking her into investing in virtual currency via a link to a sham trading platform.