Retired woman in her 60s scammed by "fake tenant" into investing in cryptocurrency, loses over HK$4.5 million

According to reports from Huiport, the Hong Kong Police announced on their social media account "Guardian of the Internet" that they received over 50 investment fraud cases in the past week, involving losses exceeding HK$30 million. In one instance, a retired woman in her sixties met a man claiming to want to rent a room through a property trading platform. He posed as an "investment expert" and persuaded her to invest in cryptocurrency. Following his instructions, the victim purchased Tether (USDT) at physical cryptocurrency exchange shops on 20 separate occasions and transferred the funds to a designated e-wallet specified by the scammer to buy Ethereum (ETH). After initially succeeding in withdrawing part of her funds, the victim continued to invest larger amounts. However, when attempting to withdraw funds again later, the scammer demanded payment of USDT worth approximately HK$7 million as a "tax." It was only then that the victim realized she had been scammed, ultimately suffering losses exceeding HK$4.5 million.