On Sunday, a Hong Kong accountant lost HK$1 million ($127,727) to fraudsters in a bogus cryptocurrency deal. The unnamed woman was duped at a shop in Tsim Sha Tsui as she wanted to convert her Tether USDT to cash.
According to a report, the Hong Kong police are searching for the fraudsters and investigating if they set up the Tsim Sha Tsui shop to defraud the accountant. The shop is located in the basement of Chevalier House on Chatham Road South.
The Wrong Crypto Dealers
The woman, 29, needed to convert her 128,040 USDT to Hong Kong dollars and contacted the fraudster for the exchange. The scammer invited her to the shop, where he claimed he was an employee.
As disclosed by the source, the scammer displayed stacked bundles of cash, which he posed as using for the exchange. The fraudster then convinced the accountant to transfer her crypto assets to a crypto wallet in exchange for HK$1 million.
After the woman made the transfer, the scammer, who posed as the shop employee, told her to wait outside as he wanted to use the restroom. The accountant later realized it was all a scam when the man failed to return, and she subsequently contacted the police.
Police later discovered that apart from two genuine notes on top and at the bottom of the stacked notes, the rest were training notes. The source disclosed that Chinese mainland bank staff used the practice notes for counting training.
A Norm in Hong Kong
Police made no arrests during the search but noted they would check the CCTV footage to collect more evidence. They, however, reported the case as a deception.
The source further revealed that police received about 8,886 reports of deception between January and March this year, a 65% increase from the 5,378 cases in the same period last year.
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