Scam alert: fake Post article featuring Hong Kong movie star Donnie Yen promotes online trading tools
- The fake article featured fictitious excerpts of an interview with Yen by the US talk show host Jimmy Kimmel
- The article suggested an editor at the Post had successfully used the trading platform
Scammers have published a fictitious article with the appearance of a South China Morning Post story and a reporter’s byline to promote two online financial trading tools.
In the fake interview, reference was made to the online trading apps, which purportedly have addresses in Singapore. The article also suggested an editor at the Post had successfully used the trading platform.
The report is categorically fake, the Post said.
The images embedded in the article were screenshots of a real interview between Yen and Kimmel, which took place in March 2023, when Yen was promoting his role in the movie John Wick: Chapter 4.
The fake article was attributed to one of the company’s business reporters, and cited support from the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hang Seng Bank for the “digital platform”.
All clicks within the sites are directed to the online platform which asks users to sign up for its investment plans.
The Commissioner of Police, Raymond Siu, said scammers typically lured victims by depositing a small sum of money into their accounts, leading the user to believe the deposit was genuine profit.
The surge in scams has prompted the city’s de facto central bank to step up its cooperation with police through the exchange of intelligence, as well as identifying suspicious transactions and implementing mechanisms to prevent the flow of illicit funds.
The number of scams reported in Hong Kong last year rose by 40 per cent to 39,824, compared with 2022, and involved more than HK$9 billion (US$1.2 billion), nearly double the amount in the previous year, the Hong Kong police said in February.
