Asia-Pacific News
More than 300 Hong Kong people swindled by bogus Chinese relatives
Dec 31, 2010, 2:41 GMT
Hong Kong - Hundreds of Hong Kong people have been swindled out of a total of nearly 1.5 million US dollars by confidence tricksters posing as relatives from China, a news report said Friday.
Police have received 306 reports in the past 12 months from victims of the scam in which a bogus relative calls from China seeking help, according to the South China Morning Post.
Targeting elderly Hong Kong people with dozens of relatives in mainland China they have not seen for long periods, the scams account for 90 per cent of phone deception cases in the past three months.
Callers start by making friendly calls to inform the victim of their contact details then call back later asking for money to be transferred to bank accounts in China to deal with an emergency.
One victim was swindled out of more than 60,000 US dollars, the newspaper reported. Most Hong Kong families have networks of relatives in mainland China.
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