A 47-year-old local woman told police in Shatin in New Territories on Saturday that she was conned out of HK$2.33 million (nearly US$300,000) by an online “lover” who established contact with her through social media.
The woman, surnamed Chiu, informed police at May Shing Court in Yat Shing House, she had been in touch online with a man overseas and started a “relationship” in March this year, Oriental Daily reported.
Chiu transferred HK$800,000 and US$50,000 on two occasions to her online “lover”.
Later, the man said he would send Chiu two small safes with cash in them by mail but requested her to pay US$89,000 for the transportation fee. Chiu followed his instruction for the payment.
A foreign man and a foreign woman later contacted Chiu for the settlement.
During the meeting, the duo took some blank paper from the safes and showed Chiu that those papers could be turned into US dollar notes by using some “magic ink”.
Chiu doubted their words at first but later agreed to buy the “magic ink” and blank paper. She paid them HK$540,000.
Chiu told her family members after the blank paper failed to turn into US dollar notes, then called the police on August 5.
Police classed the case as obtaining property by deception. No one has been arrested yet.
A crime investigation team from Shatin police is investigating the case.
According to Sing Pao, the duo was described by police as fat and with dark skin color. The foreign man, aged between 40-50, was 5 feet 10 inches tall and had short black-brown hair, while the foreign woman, aged between 30 to 40, was 5 feet 7 inches tall with medium length black-brown hair.
18 months is too severe. Please reduce it to 6 months.