Student in Hong Kong loses HK$500,000 as scammers trick her into Thai trip
Master’s student from Yunnan told by swindlers pretending to be mainland officials that she was under investigation for money laundering
A master’s student at a Hong Kong university has lost more than HK$500,000 (US$64,300) to scammers who posed as mainland Chinese officials and tricked her into travelling to Thailand, prompting police to contact Interpol to rescue her – the first time authorities have dealt with a victim pushed into going overseas.
The force on Thursday revealed details of the case as it reported that the number of university students scammed by fraudsters posing as government officials or law enforcement personnel had risen from a monthly average of 24 between July and September to 91 in October.
In the first 10 months this year, 874 scam cases using such impostor tactics were reported with total losses reaching HK$1.42 billion – more than double the figure over the same period in 2023.
Of the cases, 283 involved university students, with 72 per cent coming from the mainland and the rest from the city.
“For students coming from the mainland, they might not be very familiar with Hong Kong upon their arrival,” Superintendent Theodora Lee Wai-see of the force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre said.
“Therefore, they might be particularly worried about losing their school spot or not being able to obtain maintenance fees from their parents.”
