Hong Kong investment manager loses $1.5M inheritance in crypto scam

A 63-year-old Hong Kong investment manager has lost $1.5 million in family inheritance after being lured by a supposed female crypto investing expert into investing his money into a scam crypto trading site.

This kind of widely reported scam is known as pig butchering. Victims are slowly groomed towards investing their money into various fake trading sites run by scammers.

In this case, a Hong Kong manager began to develop a relationship with a female crypto trader, who police described as an “online lover.” They first became Facebook friends in mid-December before eventually messaging each other on WhatsApp roughly two weeks later.

Crypto scammers target lonely Chinese speakers living abroad

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He was spurred on by the supposed woman to create an account on a crypto trading site and invest his newly inherited wealth from his late father, worth HK$12 million, into crypto. Between December 30 and January 30, he sent the money to 16 various designated bank accounts under her instructions.

The site appeared to show genuine and profitable crypto trades but the Hong Kong manager soon called the police when he realized his money had fallen into the hands of scammers.

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