‘Mainland talent’ cheated out of millions in phone scam

The victim reported to the Wan Chai Police Station last night. Photo: Myriam Tsen-Kung/Coconuts Media
The victim reported to the Wan Chai Police Station last night. Photo: Myriam Tsen-Kung/Coconuts Media

A man who recently migrated to Hong Kong from the mainland via the government’s Admission Scheme for Mainland Talents and Professionals has become the latest victim in a string of phone scam cases plaguing the city, getting milked by a pair of con artists for HKD11.7 million (about $1.5 million) before the lightbulb finally clicked.

Oriental Daily reports that the 29-year-old man received a call on July 21 from a man claiming to be a courier holding documents concerning a criminal case to which he was ostensibly linked.

He was subsequently put in touch with another man posing as a Shanghai police officer, who then asked him to send money to 10 different mainland bank accounts and another Hong Kong account for investigative purposes, according to SCMP.

Almost unbelievably, despite having sent money to 11 separate bank accounts at that point, the investment analyst only finally put two and two together and reported the incident to police after losing contact with the two con artists for a week.

Police said members of the public should not hand over money to law enforcement officials or reveal their banking passwords to prove their innocence. Well, yeah. 

Despite such warnings, the number of phone scam cases in Hong Kong has nearly doubled in the first half of the year to 293 compared with the same period a year ago, with an estimated HKD109.6 million (or $14 million) scammed from the gullible.



Reader Interactions

Leave A Reply


BECOME A COCO+ MEMBER

Support local news and join a community of like-minded
“Coconauts” across Southeast Asia and Hong Kong.

Join Now
Coconuts TV
Our latest and greatest original videos
Subscribe on