Another student falls victim to scammers

2015-10-26

Another university student has fallen victim to what has become an epidemic of cross-border phone frauds the fourth such case within a week.

The latest victim is a 22-year-old mainland woman, surnamed Fung, who is a fourth-year student at the Hong Kong Institute of Education in Tai Po.

She told police she had transferred 600,000 yuan (HK$732,000) to a mainland bank account through five separate transactions since October 19.

Fung only became suspicious when she told her friends about the transfers after completing them.

She reported the scam to police yesterday.

The scam is similar to that used to trick three other university students on Friday. Two of those victims are also mainlanders.

Fung received phone calls from scammers who pretended to be mainland officials.

They informed her that there were problems with a parcel she had sent.

She was then asked to check the details on a fake government website, which showed her personal information posted on a forged arrest warrant.

Fung was made to believe she could only prove her innocence and willingness to cooperate with mainland authorities by transferring the sums of money.

According to police, phone scams involving purported mainland officials have cost people in Hong Kong HK$24.47 million since September.

Of the 43 cases reported last month, 26 involved people being duped and incurring monetary losses.

Two exchange students reported losing money in phone scams on Friday.

This followed a 26-year-old University of Hong Kong master's student being cheated out of HK$30,000 in early September.

The Hong Kong Institute of Education said it will offer Fung appropriate assistance after assessing her situation.

A first-year student at the institute from the mainland, surnamed Lok, said yesterday it has briefed all new arrivals on how to avoid phone scams.

"The briefing highlighted the point that some scammers will impersonate government officials or staff courier services," Lok said.

She claimed to have also received suspicious phone calls but has suffered no losses.

Veteran Chinese soprano Li Yuanrong, 73, was cheated out of HK$20 million in August.