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Clifford Lo

Con artists pretending to be attractive male dates are increasingly targeting Hong Kong women with false promises of companionship or sex in dating scams, prompting police to remind residents to be cautious when making friends online.
Fraudsters usually hunt for targets on social media platforms, dating apps or messaging services, and befriend them before offering “services beyond friendship” in these compensated dating swindles, according to the force.
In a recent post on their CyberDefender Facebook page, police said they handled 47 compensated dating-related scams last week, with victims losing more than HK$3 million (US$384,900).
Previously, such scams mostly targeted men, including those willing to pay for sex, the force said.
“But surprisingly, men are no longer solely targeted in these scams,” it added.
Police said 10 out of the 47 victims, or 21 per cent, were women conned by fake profiles of “handsome” men.
Scammers sought to pre-empt the victims’ suspicions by first flagging “concerns about undercover police involvement” before proposing any meet-up.
Victims were fooled into paying a deposit using game point cards, gift cards or money transfers, and also tricked into providing copies of their identity cards and other personal information.
After payments were made, the would-be “dates” failed to show up for arranged meetings.
In some cases, fraudsters continued to blackmail victims after coaxing them into revealing their personal information.
“If you refuse to pay, they may threaten to harm you or your family,” police said, adding victims continued to be exploited out of safety concerns until they could not pay any more.
“Men and women, remember: if someone asks you to buy game point cards or pay a deposit before meeting, it is definitely a scam.”
The force warned against taking part in compensated dating or giving out personal information to strangers.
According to the force, 97 per cent of those who fell victim to compensated dating scams in 2020 were male.
Between January and June this year, there were 1,055 cases of scams related to compensated dating, involving losses of HK$58.7 million.
Police last year handled 2,136 reports of such incidents with combined losses of HK$113 million, the highest in five years.
The number of reports was up by 174 cases against the 1,962 recorded in 2022, with the total amount of losses up by 56 per cent from the previous year’s HK$72.4 million.
The Post earlier reported that sources said victims might feel too embarrassed to come forward or had lost a relatively small amount of money.

On Friday, police also cautioned residents about potential scams related to a popular Chinese video game that had become a hot topic on the internet.
Black Myth: Wukong, China’s first AAA video game, broke records and became the most played title of its kind on the first day of release on the Steam digital game store – a milestone for its mainland Chinese developers.
Police said many online platforms sold video game characters and weapons for popular games, but there were also bogus trading websites created by scammers.
“These fake game websites imitate the images and texts from the genuine ones to deceive people,” they said, urging residents to check platforms’ veracity before making any transactions.
Police also called on the public to use its “Scameter” search engine, accessible via the CyberDefender website, to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.
The search engine has information to help users identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts, mobile phone numbers and IP addresses.
Police handled 1,012 online shopping scams in the past four weeks. About 25 per cent of the cases related to the purchase of concert tickets, theme park passes and air tickets.
Between January and June this year, police handled 5,153 reports of e-shopping fraud involving losses of HK$193 million.
Latest figures showed the amount online consumers lost to fraud in the first half of this year already exceeded the total losses in 2023, which reached HK$190 million across 8,950 cases.


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News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

Police say 47 victims lost over HK$3 million in compensated dating-related scams last week, a ‘surprising’ 21 per cent of them women.


Hong Kong police

More Hong Kong women being conned by ‘handsome’ fraudsters in dating scams: police

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}Police say 47 victims lost over HK$3 million in compensated dating-related scams last week, a ‘surprising’ 21 per cent of them women.

Police say 47 victims lost over HK$3 million in compensated dating-related scams last week, a ‘surprising’ 21 per cent of them women.