Hung Hom in Kowloon where the woman lived. Photo Google Maps
Hung Hom in Kowloon where the woman lived. Photo Google Maps

A 77-year-old Hong Kong woman has filed a complaint with police, alleging she was cheated of HK$2 million (HK$254,820) in an online scam.

The retired woman who had lived in a private housing estate in Tuen Mun in the New Territories until she moved to the Hung Hom Estate in Kowloon to live with her family, told police she met a foreign man through Skype in October 2014, the Apple Daily reported.

They had communicated in English and one month after they got to know each other, the man told the old woman his assets were being held by customs and he needed US$50,000 as a clearance fee. The woman sent him the money.

The following year, the man sent a suitcase he claimed contained valuables to the woman and asked her to look after it, but insisted she not open it. Over the next three years, the man used various excuses to get the woman to transfer money to his bank account. She transferred a total of HK$2 million to him.

Last Monday the elderly woman told her 46-year-old daughter about all the money she’d set to the man she met online. When her daughter opened the suitcase, she found it was filled with waste paper.

Officers from the Kowloon City Police Station classed the case as obtaining property by deception, but no one has been arrested.

Read: Woman loses HK$26 million to online love scammer

Read: Eight-year online relationship costs HK woman millions

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