Source: Hong Kong 01
Written by: Zhu Yonglun
The police busted a local fraud syndicate that used London gold investment business as a cover, and revealed that the syndicate used high returns and low risks to attract people to open accounts for London gold and virtual currency transactions, and used cold calls to deceive at least 25 victims. , fell into a "fake investment" scam involving HK$4 million; the fraud group also used 50 shell companies and puppet accounts to launder more than 320 million in fraudulent money in the past year. The police raided the fraud group's Grade-A office building in Kowloon last Wednesday and Thursday (30th to 31st) and arrested 19 men and women on suspicion of "money laundering" and "conspiracy to defraud", including the mastermind, several key members, Shell company principals and suspected puppet account holders.
Chief Inspector Tuan Yuk-heng of the Crime Unit of Kowloon East Region said that the fraud group started operating in June last year. The group’s mastermind would first arrange for members to set up investment companies, rent offices in commercial buildings and set up websites. In order to avoid being traced by the police and victims, the group A company is shut down after it has been in operation for a while, and a new one is opened. The group uses a pyramid scheme (cold call) to promote investment projects such as London gold and virtual currencies to defrauded victims. During this period, group members will falsely claim that they are senior investment brokers and use high returns and low risks as selling points to lure victims. People involved.
Duan Yuheng pointed out that when the victim is deceived, the group members will claim to collect the money in cash or by transferring it to a specific account. Later, the members will use some applications to help the victims open accounts, and some defrauded victims are even persuaded to sign an authorization letter authorizing the broker to handle their accounts with full authority.
Duan Yuheng said that these application accounts are just a virtual trading platform and have nothing to do with London gold and virtual currencies in the market. Therefore, the scammers never invest the victims' money. They just fabricate different scenarios to defraud the victims. Money; including, fraudsters will conduct unusually frequent transactions in the account, and hold positions for a long time after buying goods, in order to charge high transaction fees and holding fees. The principal in the victim's account will slowly be lost due to these fees. Loss.
Scammers will also use the illusion of winning or losing money, and then use verbal attacks to trick the victim into continuing to invest, claiming that they can earn back the loss in a short period of time, thereby increasing the investment amount. However, when the victim finally wants to withdraw the principal, he will The scammers refuse for different reasons, and even charge high administrative fees to deal with it. In addition, the group will also clean up the fraudulent funds in the shell companies and the puppet accounts of "dead men" in the form of multiple transfers.
The police launched an arrest operation last Wednesday and Thursday (30th to 31st). During the period, they searched multiple premises across Hong Kong and arrested 12 men and 7 women, ranging in age from the fraud group’s investment company in a Grade A office building in Kowloon District. Approximately 25 to 42 years old, suspected of "money laundering" and "conspiracy to defraud", including the mastermind, several key members, the person in charge of the shell company, and suspected puppet account holders. During the operation, the police seized servers, 6 computers, 30 mobile phones, and found a large number of customer investment agreements, more than 1,000 phone numbers recorded, phone paper used for cold calls, and telephone dialogue lines used to deceive citizens. A large amount of cash, precious jewelry and 5 watches were also found in the residence of the arrested person, and the group was successfully prevented from transferring about 1.5 million criminal proceeds.
Inspector Liang Peijun of the Commercial Crime Investigation Bureau called on relatives and friends around them to always remind them to beware of being deceived, and to remind each other to understand the nature of investment products before investing. There is no "guaranteed profit" investment, and to beware of investment plans with unrealistically high returns. If you have any questions, you can call the 24-hour "Anti-Fraud Easy" hotline 18222 to contact the Anti-Fraud Coordination Center staff.
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