The Hong Kong police have cracked a large-scale phishing scam involving both local and international operations, arresting 7 men and 1 woman aged 26-41 on charges of “conspiracy to defraud” and “conspiracy to commit money laundering”. The case involves over HKD46 million, and several suspects remain at large.

The fraudsters impersonated securities firms to send phishing messages, claiming that accounts were about to be frozen, luring victims to enter fake local or overseas securities websites. Victims were then asked to input their securities account numbers, passwords, and verification codes.

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After hijacking the victims' accounts, the fraudsters swiftly sold off the victims' investment portfolios and used the funds to purchase stocks with low market value and trading volume. They repeatedly engaged in “buy high, sell low” transactions in a short period to transfer the fraudulently obtained funds.

As of yesterday (25th), the Hong Kong police have received 137 local cases, with losses exceeding HKD40 million. Earlier on, the Hong Kong police had received a phishing scam case referred by the Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) involving overseas operations, with a similar modus operandi to the local scams, involving over HKD6 million.