- Internet romance scams had grown to 54% with 601 cases from just 391 cases last year
- Love scammers easily pull their victims to make an investment in non-existent cryptocurrency accounts
The Hongkong police force has reported that the love scammers are targeting the public to make them involve in huge fraud investments. Further, in about a third of recent cases, the love scammers easily pull their victims to make an investment in non-existent cryptocurrency accounts. All the online platforms become much more comfortable for scammers to make their victims fall in love at the start and then gradually use them for their requirements.
Love scams and bogus investment scams are the two biggest scams that involve international fraudsters that pulled lovelorn Hongkongers to lose over $10M in the past three months. They follow new tactics to make the victim fall, targeting lump-sum money. Over the months, the police force has decided to arrange awareness campaigns for the public, particularly on weekends. This gradual trend came to the police’s attention in June.
It is said that in the past eight months, internet romance scams had grown to 54% with 601 cases from just 391 cases last year. The total loss amount estimated is about HK$143.6M, which is equivalent to US$18.5M. The force also says that they get around 70-80 love scam cases in a month, and one-third of those cases would involve bogus investment. They added that the online love scam differs significantly from traditional love scams, as mostly it doesn’t exceed HK$20,000.
The fraudster’s main tactic is that they set up a fake romantic relationship with the victim and will make them believe that they are loyal. Typically they will start talking about the sudden financial loss or urgent capital requirements. Other examples include the fraudsters will ask the victims to download the app, which is specially designed for cryptocurrency investments. It will show only the profits and positives of cryptocurrency. Initially, scammers will invest some amount (controlled by their people) and show it as proof to their victims. By seeing this, victims might get excited and start investing the same.
There comes a stage where all of a sudden, everything will vanish, including the scammer. The victims will come to know that they have been cheated, only by the time of withdrawing money from the specified app. They will not be able to log in again. In the majority of cases, the victims are identified to be middle-aged women who long for affection and care.
The force also claimed that the Anti-Deception Coordination Center has restricted the transfer of about HK$2.3B, which involves 580 cases. They also added that they have prevented victims in more than 180 cases from sending money to the scammers.