Hong Kong police have issued a fraud alert to animal-lovers after a vice-president of a fashion company in the city was scammed out of HK$6 million (US$764,556) in a new type of online scam. The case prompted the force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre to issue the warning, The South China Morning Post reported on Feb 7.
The victim, a 58-year-old woman, responded to an online post about the sale of a three-month-old kitten in April 2022, by a user posing as a female pet lover in Thailand. The pair continued to communicate on WhatsApp, where the scammer claimed she could offer the kitten for free, but the victim would have to pay for various charges such as delivery fees and insurance payments.
“The scammer claimed she could offer her cat to the victim at no cost, but the victim was required to settle various charges such as delivery fee and insurance payment,” a source familiar with the case said.
A second scammer posing as a shipping company employee then contacted the woman on WhatsApp, asking her to settle the delivery fee in cryptocurrency. The victim was asked to set up a cryptocurrency account and transferred bitcoin to the fraudsters. In mid-May, she was told the kitten had died during delivery and she would be entitled to US$152,400 in insurance compensation, but she would have to pay an administration fee upfront.
Between July and November 2022, the victim transferred bitcoin with a value of HK$6 million in 40 transactions. She realized it was a scam in mid-January 2023 when she was asked to pay more money. She then reported the incident to the police.
The police are warning the public to be discerning and to verify the identities of online strangers who request money for any reason. They urge people to call their 24-hour anti-scam helpline on 18222 if they need advice.
Hong Kong has seen a sevenfold increase in technology-based crimes in the decade from 2011 to 2021, with cybercrime reports jumping from 2,206 in 2011 to 16,159 in 2021, while the amount of money involved increased 20 times to HK$3.02 billion in 2021. The latest scam involving the sale of a kitten is just one of many types of cybercrimes that the city has faced, and the police warn the public to be cautious and to protect themselves from becoming victims.
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