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81 Hongkongers swindled out of HK$12 million in online job scams in past week

One victim duped out of more than HK$400,000 in click farming job scam after receiving WhatsApp message, police say

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The force has advised residents to use its Scameter search engine to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes. Photo: SCMP

Scammers have swindled 81 Hongkongers out of more than HK$12 million (US$1.5 million) in a week through bogus online job offers.

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The force reminded the public to remain vigilant over employment fraud in an alert posted on its CyberDefender Facebook page on Monday.

Officers handled 1,447 reports of all types of online job scams between January and June this year, with financial losses amounting to HK$334 million.

Police said they received 81 reports of online employment fraud on their CyberDefender page last week, with losses reaching as much as HK$12.3 million.

One of the victims was duped out of more than HK$400,000 in a “click-farming” job scam after he received a WhatsApp message.

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“The scammer offered online promotional work and shared a fake website link,” the force said, noting the man followed the instructions to register and log in to the website to perform “click-farming” tasks.

“Subsequently, another trickster pretended to be a customer service representative from the website and coaxed the victim into making multiple money transfers.”

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