If the offender is apprehended by the police, their maximum term is 10 years in prison.
According to reports, a 55-year-old Hong Kong resident lost all of her assets, totaling about HK$7 million (around $900,000), as a result of an online Bitcoin investment fraud.
Recently, there have been a lot more instances of this kind of scam in the area. According to one survey, the first half of 2022 saw investors in Hong Kong lose close to $50 million as a result of cryptocurrency schemes.
Getting Property Through Deceit
The woman fell victim after a criminal contacted her on Instagram in January of this year (according to a South China Morning Post report). According to the inquiry, they subsequently began conversing on another messaging platform.
After winning her trust, the fraudster suggested that she create an account on an unproven site and make cryptocurrency investments with the promise of big profits. Law enforcement officials stated that the prices of digital assets provided on the site were false and controlled by the perpetrator.
She was required to pay a fee when she tried to withdraw a portion of her money. Before understanding she had been duped, she even made an attempt to borrow money from her daughter.
The Hong Kong retiree requested assistance from the police, who identified the matter as “obtaining property by fraud,” a misdemeanor that carries a maximum sentence of ten years in jail. However, no suspect has been taken into custody by the authorities as of the time of this report.
This is not the only significant cryptocurrency fraud in Hong Kong this week. Recently, a 44-year-old woman reported to the authorities that she lost $3.1 million after making an investment in the stablecoin Tether (USDT) on a shady website.
Cryptocurrency Frauds Increasing in Hong Kong
More than 10,000 cyber attacks occurred in Hong Kong between the beginning of January of the year and the end of June, according to data from 2022. A total of 798 of them included cryptocurrency-related schemes that stole $50 million from investors. Comparatively, losses from this type of crime totaled $21 million in the first half of 2021.
According to a recent police report, by the end of 2022, cryptocurrency fraud in China’s special administrative region had risen to 2,336 (a 67% increase over 2021’s instances). Of the cases, 1,884 were handled by law enforcement agents.
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