Police arrest 19 over cryptocurrency scam

Police say they have made 19 arrests after people overseas were scammed out of at least HK$11 million after being promised they could make a fortune by investing in cryptocurrency.

The force said fraudsters targeted 170 people in various places, including the mainland and the UK, with images of luxury lifestyles used to persuade victims to part with their cash.

“The fraudsters used a fake app and some kind of fake web pages… in order to deceive people,” said superintendent Tam Wai-shun from the force’s technology crime division.

Police said that during a two-day operation this week, they seized nine computers, 128 smartphones, HK$1.4 million in cash, cryptocurrency worth HK$50,000 and a racing car.

Eleven men and eight women aged 18 to 31 were arrested.

Tam said scams involving cryptocurrency have become more common, with 496 such cases in Hong Kong in the first half of this year – more than the total recorded in 2020.
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