A Hong Kong woman has reportedly been scammed to the tune of nearly $1 million after being enticed to send money to a fake crypto trading platform.
According to a new report from the South China Morning Post (SCMP), a 46-year-old woman from Hong Kong was tricked into sending just over $900,000 to 15 different foreign bank accounts between 2022 and 2023.
She was conned into sending the funds with promises that the money would be used to invest in digital assets. According to the report, she didn’t call authorities until last Tuesday, many months after she made her first deposit.
An anonymous source familiar with the matter told SCMP that the woman became suspicious when she could not contact the two individuals who lured her into depositing funds.
“She became suspicious only when she could not contact two online scammers and withdraw money from the trading platform. She found out it was a scam when she discussed it with her family.”
The source says the woman was contacted in 2022 through Instagram by a scammer who tricked her into investing in crypto through a non-existent trading platform. A second scammer then posed as an employee of the fictitious crypto trading service and instructed her to pour funds into specific accounts for about eight months.
“Another suspect impersonated a customer service representative from the trading platform and instructed the victim to transfer more than HK $7.12 million ($908,000) into designated bank accounts between August 19, 2022, and March 4, 2023.”
The source also says the Hong Kong resident never saw profits from her investments.
Though no arrests have been made so far, the authorities say they are treating this incident as “obtaining property by deception,” a crime that can be punished by up to 10 years in prison, according to the report.
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