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Hongkonger in her 80s conned into buying 4 iTunes gift cards worth total of HK$3,000 in online romance scam

  • Victim fell for the scam after she developed online romantic relationship with swindler posing as Canadian engineer, police say
  • ‘Later, the ‘engineer’ asked her to buy iTunes gift cards so they could meet in Hong Kong,’ they add

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An elderly Hongkonger has fallen victim to an online romance scam. Photo: Shutterstock

A Hong Kong woman in her 80s has become the latest city victim of a romance scam after she was tricked into buying four iTunes gift cards worth a total of HK$3,000 (US$383) in exchange for a meeting with her “online lover”.

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The woman responded to a WhatsApp text message from a swindler who posed as a Canadian engineer, police said in a post on their CyberDefender Facebook page on Tuesday.

The pair continued to communicate and developed an online romantic relationship before she was cheated.

“Love knows no age, but scams are the same for everyone,” the force warned.

It added that police should not automatically trust romantic messages from strangers.

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“Later, the ‘engineer’ asked her to buy iTunes gift cards so they could meet in Hong Kong,” the force said.

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