A 39-year-old Hong Kong man was abducted in early November when he agreed to a live cryptocurrency exchange in Kowloon Bay in Hong Kong.
Hong Kong crypto trader kidnapped and tortured for ransom and account keys
The story unfolds as follows. On November 6, 2021, after agreeing to meet a Tether buyer in Kowloon Bay in Hong Kong, the man was lured into an industrial building, hacked, and forced to hand over his smartphone and password to some trading platforms.
He was detained at a building in Tai Po, north of Hong Kong, for nearly a week. His captors demanded a ransom of HK$30 million from his family. On November 9, 2021, his family contacted the authorities. Police then stormed into the mansion where the victim was being held, and as officers were closing in on the location, he managed to escape through a window.
The victim suffered torture at the hands of her captors and suffered a broken leg that required hospitalization. Police have arrested seven people in connection with the kidnapping and are still searching for another, all of whom are suspected of belonging to the Sun Yee On trio’s organized crime syndicate.
Alan Chung of the Western Regional Crime Unit said it investigated whether the victim was robbed after handing over her banking and cryptocurrency passwords. A source told the South China Morning Post that the victim’s crypto assets are worth more than HK$20 million. Hong Kong authorities have warned investors to take precautions and only trade cryptocurrencies on legitimate platforms.
Source: Facebook
There was a similar incident in January 2021, when a woman lost HK$3.5 million in a P2P transaction. Criminals lured her into an office where she was expecting to trade USDT for Hong Kong dollars. They tracked her sending USDT through her smartphone, but when she received the cash, a group of three more men bursts into the room. They stole her phone and tied her to a chair, making money.
As crypto becomes more and more popular, scams related to this form are getting stronger and stronger.
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