6 S'pore women lose over $100k after falling for investment scam by Hong Kong man
Six women from Singapore, aged 30 to 60, lost over $100,000 in total to a man from Hong Kong who developed a relationship with his victims over Whatsapp.
Speaking to Shin Min Daily News, one of the victims, Lily (not her real name), said that like the other women, she had received a Whatsapp message from the man who claimed to have just arrived in Singapore. He began the correspondence by saying how he was informed that she would be his personal translator during his trip.
Even after being met with denials by the women, the man would continue chatting with them.
Lily said the man introduced himself as a real estate business owner from Hong Kong, and that he would often come to Singapore as he has an uncle living here.
After establishing a warm relationship with the women through constant contact, he would then lure them into a “money-making opportunity” through buying tokens on a crypto trading platform.
He would get the women to download the virtual currency platform's application, then teach them how to transfer the tokens to a link he’d send to them. The link would take the women into another trading platform where they would register for an account and be able to use the virtual currency.
Lily said that several women were encouraged to increase their investment after seeing positive returns.
Another victim told Shin Min that she was duped into pumping in more cash following a $30,000 investment, after the man claimed there would be a 50 per cent tax to withdraw the entire amount.
Despite a few of them having concerns that the whole affair was a scam, the women brushed their reservations aside until they were contacted by customer service agents from the crypto platform.
Lily, who found the other victims through the crypto platform, said the agents had reached out to them after detecting the large transacted amounts. All six of them made a police report on Aug 20.
"Fortunately, I was more cautious and only invested $1,000. I had an argument with the man and he transferred the money back to the crypto platform," said Lily.
One of the victims wasn’t so lucky though, and reportedly lost $65,000.
Responding to Shin Min’s queries, the police said that investigations are ongoing.
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