A woman in Hong Kong fell victim to a "cryptocurrency investment romance scam," losing over 5.5 million Hong Kong dollars in two months

According to reports from the newspaper, a 39-year-old woman from Hong Kong met a man who claimed to be an employee of a new energy company through a mobile dating app, and then they moved to WhatsApp to develop an online romantic relationship. The other party lured the victim into investing in cryptocurrency on a fake trading platform under the pretext of high returns. Following the platform's customer service instructions, the victim transferred over 5.5 million Hong Kong dollars to multiple unknown individuals through various fast transfer accounts over approximately two months, after which the scammer went offline, and the victim realized they had been scammed.

Last week, the Hong Kong police received a total of 15 reports of online romance scams, involving nearly 10 million Hong Kong dollars in fraud. The police remind that such scams often use investments in precious metals and cryptocurrencies as bait.