A wealthy 90-year-old Hong Kong woman was scammed out of $32 million by a group of men claiming to be Chinese mainland law enforcement.
Last summer, the woman was contacted by the scammers posing as Chinese authorities.
“She was told her identity was used in a serious criminal case in mainland China,” a police source said to the South China Morning Post. “She was then instructed to transfer her money to designated bank accounts to investigate whether the cash was the proceeds of crime.”
Following the phone call, a 19-year-old student visited the woman’s home in an affluent area of Hong Kong known as The Peak. The suspect handed the victim a cellphone and told her to communicate with the scammers through that phone only.
Between August 2020 and January 2021, the woman transferred enormous sums of money through 11 transactions into three separate accounts, according to police sources. In one of the transactions, one of the scammers involved went with the woman to her bank as she transferred the money.
Police were alerted of the scam after the woman’s domestic helper “alerted her employer’s daughter about the unusual activities,” according to BBC.
Eventually, police arrested the 19-year-old suspect last month along and froze his bank accounts totaling $1 million.
None of the other phone scammers were arrested.
