- Hong Kong police arrested a woman accused of posing as a prospective tenant to swindle two landlords out of $510,000.
- She allegedly paid rent in advance to win trust, then handed victims free phones loaded with a genuine crypto app
- The app, however, had its links altered to give a syndicate control of their e-wallets.
Hong Kong police arrested a 67-year-old woman suspected of posing as a flat-hunter to swindle HK$4.3 million, or US$510,000, from two landlords.
She allegedly lured them into a bogus cryptocurrency investment that gave a scam syndicate access to their wallets.
Rent upfront, then a phone loaded with an app
The Western district crime squad said the scam began with finding property listings.
The woman pretended to be a tenant and paid rent ahead of time to build trust with the landlords. After that, she began talking about what she called a “high-return investment.”
Every victim was provided with a free mobile phone with a pre-installed cryptocurrency app. Police said the app was genuine, but its links had been altered to let the syndicate quietly reach into victims’ e-wallets.
One of the victims was drained of more than HK$1 million, the other, more than HK$3 million. The combined sums come to the HK$4.3 million figure police have put on the case.
Investigators believe the woman is a core member of the syndicate. She was arrested on Monday at her home. She is accused of getting the two owners to transfer funds before the other members helped move the money out.
The scammer is expected to be charged with obtaining property by deception, and the case is set to be mentioned at Eastern Court on Thursday. Police have not said publicly whether they have identified or detained other members of the syndicate.
Police continue Fun Coffee scam crackdown
Police have received 264 reports linked to the “Fun Coffee” scheme in Hong Kong since July, with estimated losses of HK$107.5 million. The victims, aged between 32 and 83, said they had lost between HK$3,000 and about HK$9.6 million.
The police arrested six people aged between 51 and 64, five women and one man, on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud on August 4. The joint operation with the Macau police took place from August 1 to 3.
The Vietnam coffee-investment brand had already been flagged by Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission (FSC) on its alert list, as Cryptopolitan reported in July.
Lawmaker Johnny Ng Kit-chong has told authorities to freeze company funds and crypto assets as soon as regulators detect suspicious transactions, based on a local report from China Daily.
He added that his office is tracing crypto wallets to help investigators find lost money. Ng warned the public to avoid schemes that promise high returns or have “task-based investments.”
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Randa Moses
Randa Moses is an editor and reporter at Cryptopolitan covering tech, AI, robotics, crypto, scams, and hacks. She has worked in the crypto space since 2017. She held roles at Forward Protocol, AmaZix, and Cryptosomniac. Randa holds a degree in Electrical and Electronics Engineering from the University of Bradford.
