Hong Kong police cut off 2 alleged phone fraud syndicates said to have scammed HK$26.5 million
- 17 people arrested in connection with crackdown on fake mainland security officers fraud and separate ‘guess who I am’ scam
The force said on Thursday that 12 of those detained were alleged to have worked for a scam where fraudsters impersonated mainland Chinese security service agents in cold calls to victims.
Senior Inspector Li Ka-wai of the Kowloon East regional crime unit added that the con men accused victims of committing crimes on the mainland and claimed to be conducting financial investigations.
“The syndicate deployed so-called spies to meet the victims and instruct them to sign ‘confidentiality agreements’. They also collected money scammed from the victims or asked them to make money transfers for an alleged investigation,” Li said.
He added some of the “spies” had shown fake identification cards during face-to-face meetings.
Li said the IDs and agreements were just props used by the fraudsters to fool victims into believing it was an official investigation.