A 25-year-old woman was arrested after claiming to be a relative of another woman who had been left financially distressed by a recent fatal bus crash in Hong Kong’s Tai Po area, and asking for donations on social media to help out her family member.
Officers from the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau nabbed the 25-year-old Web designer on Tuesday in Mong Kok, Kowloon, for allegedly accessing a computer with criminal or dishonest intent, Superintendent Mohammed Swalikh told a media briefing the same day.
Officers also confiscated two mobile phones, a laptop and a tablet.
Police had received five reports after the fatal bus accident in Tai Po on Saturday regarding a Facebook post in which someone claimed to be a relative of someone affected by the bus crash and was looking for “a good Samaritan,” Apple Daily reported.
The alleged scammer stated that her sister-in-law had lost her husband in the bus accident and had been left to take care of their 10-month-old twin sons on her own.
The post appealed for donations to two bank accounts, at HSBC and Bank of China (Hong Kong), providing the account information. All donations would be transferred to her sister-in-law, the post said.
However, many netizens suspected that it was a scam and left comments advising other netizens not to donate any money.
Police said that so far no donations had been made to either account and they believed that the suspect had been acting on her own.
Read: Tai Po bus crash driver charged with dangerous driving causing death
Read: 18 killed, 47 injured in Hong Kong double-decker crash
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