Three Hong Kong people have lost a total of HK$1.7 million (US$218,288) after falling victim to phone scammers, local media reports said.
At 10am on Saturday, a 54-year-old man surnamed Lo, who lives in Discovery Bay, Lantau Island, received a call from a person claiming to be a mainland law enforcement official.
The caller asked Lo for bank account details to assist a police investigation into a criminal case, Ta Kung Pao reported.
Lo gave the person the information requested but only realized that he might have been the victim of a phone scam when 1.36 million yuan was withdrawn from his account, which prompted him to call the Hong Kong Police.
At 11am on Friday, a 20-year-old man surnamed Yim received a call from a person claiming to be a mainland police officer, who accused him of committing serious criminal offenses.
Yim was ordered to remit HK$12,000 and later another HK$25,000 to prove his innocence. After two transfers, Yim suspected he may have been a victim of phone scammers, and called Hong Kong Police at 7pm the same day, Apple Daily reported.
At 10pm on Thursday, a 26-year-old saleswoman surnamed Ng filed a report to Hong Kong police officers after she had transferred HK$160,000 to a person claiming to be a mainland law enforcement officer, who called her on April 16.