Hong Kong woman, 60, loses HK$11.5 million to scammers posing as police, tech support
‘Tech support’ claimed victim’s computer was hacked before transferring her to another scammer posing as policeman, insider says
A Hong Kong retiree has been swindled out of more than HK$11 million (US$1.4 million) by fraudsters posing as police officers and technical support staff in the city’s biggest cyber scam case of its kind.
In a post on its CyberDefender social media page on Monday, the force said the case came to light after the woman, 60, sought help from police last week.
A police source said the victim fell prey to the scam while browsing websites on her computer at home on November 8.
“A pop-up alert suddenly appeared on her computer, claiming it was locked,” the insider said, adding that the warning displayed a telephone number for technical support.
He said the woman called a “technical staff member” who claimed her computer was hacked and then referred her to another scammer who posed as a police officer.
According to the source, the bogus officer requested remote access to check the victim’s computer.
“While remotely controlling the victim’s computer, the fake policeman asked her to check her bank accounts on the same computer [on the pretext of helping] to track down the ‘hacker’,” police said.
