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Clifford Lo

A Hong Kong retiree has been swindled out of more than HK$11 million (US$1.4 million) by fraudsters posing as police officers and technical support staff in the city’s biggest cyber scam case of its kind.
In a post on its CyberDefender social media page on Monday, the force said the case came to light after the woman, 60, sought help from police last week.
A police source said the victim fell prey to the scam while browsing websites on her computer at home on November 8.
“A pop-up alert suddenly appeared on her computer, claiming it was locked,” the insider said, adding that the warning displayed a telephone number for technical support.
He said the woman called a “technical staff member” who claimed her computer was hacked and then referred her to another scammer who posed as a police officer.
According to the source, the bogus officer requested remote access to check the victim’s computer.
“While remotely controlling the victim’s computer, the fake policeman asked her to check her bank accounts on the same computer [on the pretext of helping] to track down the ‘hacker’,” police said.
“Eventually, as the victim checked her various bank accounts, the scammers stole her bank passwords and other personal information.”

The source said investigations revealed that around HK$11.53 million was transferred out of the victim’s accounts into seven other bank accounts controlled by scammers in 21 transactions between November 8 and 14.
The victim realised she had been conned after she found out the money had been transferred out of her accounts. She then called police.
Police chief Raymond Siu Chak-yee also issued an alert on Saturday over the new tech support scam. He revealed that police had handled 58 reports of such swindles so far this year, with financial losses totalling HK$59 million.
“Hong Kong police will never ask you to share your online bank account details,” Siu stressed.
Police urged the public to remain vigilant against such scams, avoid granting remote control of their computer to strangers and never provide bank details or passwords to anyone.
The city recorded 36,405 reports of all types of deception in the first 10 months of this year, an increase of 7.3 per cent compared with the same period in 2023.
The force appealed to the public to use the force’s Scameter search engine, accessible through the CyberDefender website or app, to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.
The search engine has information that can help the public identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts, mobile phone numbers and IP addresses.


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News

Hong Kong

Law and Crime

‘Tech support’ claimed victim’s computer was hacked before transferring her to another scammer posing as policeman, insider says


‘Tech support’ claimed victim’s computer was hacked before transferring her to another scammer posing as policeman, insider says.


Crime in Hong Kong

Scams and swindles

Hong Kong woman, 60, loses HK$11.5 million to scammers posing as police, tech support

.css-1c6uqr6{color:inherit;font-weight:inherit;font-size:inherit;font-family:inherit;line-height:inherit;overflow-wrap:break-word;}‘Tech support’ claimed victim’s computer was hacked before transferring her to another scammer posing as policeman, insider says

‘Tech support’ claimed victim’s computer was hacked before transferring her to another scammer posing as policeman, insider says