A 90-year-old woman was conned out of £23m in a phone scam by fraudsters posing as security officials.
The woman, living in the luxurious The Peak neighbourhood in Hong Kong, was contacted by the criminals who claimed to be Chinese public security officials.
They told the vulnerable pensioner her identity had been used in a serious criminal case in mainland China and she needed to transfer money from her bank account into ones held by the investigation team for safekeeping.
Police reports claimed the woman was later visited at her mansion home by a fraudster with a dedicated mobile phone and SIM card to communicate with the fake security agents.
Over a period of time, they persuaded her to make a total of 11 bank transfers, according to the South China Morning Post.
(Image: Getty Images)
Within five months, she had handed over a total of HK$250 million (£23m) to the scammers, the largest sum recorded yet by a phone con.
Police said the scam was only flagged when the woman’s domestic helper thought something suspicious was happening and contacted her daughter.
A 19-year-old was arrested for fraud following an investigation and has been released on bail, police said.
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Hong Kong has one of the world’s highest concentrations of billionaires.
With many of the known billionaires being elderly citizens, they are often vulnerable to scammers and fraud.
In the first quarter of 2021, phone scams rose 18%.
In 2020, police said they handled 1,193 phone scam cases where a total of HK$574m ($74m) was stolen.