Fraudsters have duped two senior citizens in Hong Kong out of $1.1 million through a phone phishing scam directing them to bogus trading platforms.
Scammers targeted a 66-year-old woman and a 71-year-old man to invest in Tether (USDT) and mainland stocks by posing as investment experts on online platforms.
Hong Kong Phone Scams Target Older People
A so-called crypto expert tricked the woman into investing in Tether through a malicious WhatsApp link leading to a site that harvested her data. The scammer gave the victim almost $10,000 in return to allay suspicion.
After seeing nearly $586,000 transferred to another wallet in 15 transactions across three months, the lady suspected a scam and contacted law enforcement.
Another “licensed” investment platform extorted $515,000 from a Hong Kong man by encouraging the use of a stock trading app. The man transferred funds to nine bank accounts but couldn’t access the platform to withdraw profits. He also reported the fraud to the police.
Technology-based crime accounted for more than two-thirds of fraud cases in Hong Kong last year. The first two weeks of April saw 196 jobseekers duped by a fraudulent, commission-based employment fraud that lost them $40,000.
U.K. and Hong Kong Governments Crack Down on Phone Fraud
Hong Kong police announced that anti-fraud messages would accompany calls from numbers with the +852 prefix starting in May. Residents can use an app called Scameter to determine the threat level of suspected fraud.
Despite these technological initiatives, Police Chief Raymond Siu believes banks could collaborate more to track illicit fund flows.
Criminals stole $127 million through phones the previous year, which has since dropped 48% as of Q1 2023.
On Wednesday, the U.K. announced a ban on crypto and insurance cold calling amid $9 billion in annual national losses. It also vowed to review access to mass-texting technology and announced new technology to detect when criminals impersonate legitimate U.K. callers.
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