Police have arrested four Hong Kong men and continue to search for two others over a fake law firm scam that conned 17 people out of over HKD12 million between February and June.
The arrestees, aged 30 to 48, presented themselves as lawyers and financial intermediaries to their victims, Apple Daily reports. Two others who posed as directors of intermediary firms are being sought by the police.
At a press conference yesterday, commercial crime bureau chief inspector Tsang Chun-kit said victims were cold-called by the self-proclaimed financial intermediaries who convinced them into applying for low-interest loans.
The “intermediaries” would then refer their targets to “law firms”, which were established to make the con artists seem credible and professional, said Fan Chun-yip, senior inspector of the Kowloon West regional crime unit.
So far, 17 people aged 29 to 68 have come forward as victims of the scam, with combined losses of HKD12.56 million. Police are investigating whether the suspects were all working within one syndicate.
A total of 302 arrests were made between August 2015 and June this year in relation to 241 cases involving similar cons, police said. The losses from those cases totalled HKD226 million.
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