Desperate Hong Kong job-hunters ‘easy prey’ for scammers, lose HK$6.4 million in first two months of year
- One scam saw victims use their own funds to place orders on phoney shopping apps, money that would disappear instead of returning the promised commissions
- ‘Sometimes the victims hadn’t even been to the office of the so-called company or understand the nature of the job before giving out their personal information’, acting Commercial Crime Bureau chief says
The number of eager Hong Kong job-hunters falling prey to scams rose fourfold in the first two months of this year, with victims losing HK$6.4 million (US$823,000) to con artists amid the highest jobless rate in 17 years.
In addition to stealing victims’ personal data to apply for loans, police have also warned of so-called brushing scams, which trick victims into placing orders on phoney shopping apps to boost a seller’s rating and business volume. Promised a full refund of the money they used in addition to a commission, victims received neither.
Chief inspector Chan Yat-wai of the Commercial Crime Bureau said fraudsters would direct their marks to transfer money into a real bank account, then manipulate the app’s account so it appeared topped up and ready to use for making purchases. Victims were told their commissions could be as high as 10 per cent.
“Scammers edited the app’s account balance to make victims believe that they were profiting. But culprits made up excuses when victims wanted to cash out the account,” Chan said. “Victims only realised they were cheated when the app was deleted [from an online app store] and the scammers vanished.”
In all, 86 jobseekers were conned out of HK$6.4 million in January and February via a variety of scams, compared with 17 Hongkongers losing HK$770,000 over the same period last year. The youngest victim was just 16 years old.
In 2020, the number of victims rose by 74 per cent, from 197 to 343 year-on-year, with financial losses also increasing by 28 per cent to nearly HK$20 million.
