Hong Kong police reported on October 5 that a retired woman in her 70s listed second-hand furniture and musical instruments on Facebook for around HK$8,000. A scammer posing as an interested buyer persuaded her to switch the conversation to WhatsApp and sent a phishing link to a fake trading portal, claiming she had to "activate payment receiving" and complete a "deposit verification."
Believing the fraudster's assurances that all funds would be refunded right after verification, the victim made four separate transfers to designated accounts, totaling roughly HK$1.4 million. The buyer vanished as soon as the transfers cleared.
According to authorities, more than 200 online shopping fraud cases were reported in Hong Kong over the past week alone, with total losses surpassing HK$5.2 million.
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