Man in His Sixties Falls Victim to Cryptocurrency Scam, Loses Over 21 Million Yuan in Six Months

According to a report by AASTOCKS, the police "Net Guardians" revealed that over 40 investment fraud cases were reported in the past week, resulting in losses exceeding HK$36 million. One local woman in her sixties was targeted by scammers on an online forum. Once the conversation moved to WhatsApp, the scammers lured her into investing in cryptocurrency using the promise of high returns. The scammers instructed the victim to download a cryptocurrency wallet app and provided links to fake investment websites, requiring her to authorize the wallet to connect to the fake site for transfers. Initially, the victim made a profit of HK$920,000 and successfully withdrew funds. Over the next six months, she made more than 20 transfers totaling over HK$19 million to the fake website, with the account balance showing upwards of HK$42 million. Subsequently, the account on the fake website was suddenly frozen. Customer service demanded a deposit of over HK$7 million to unlock it. The victim transferred another HK$1.2 million before growing suspicious upon being unable to meet further payment demands, prompting her to file a police report. She ultimately sustained losses exceeding HK$21 million.