A 55-year-old Italian man was duped of HK$14 million ( ₹14.59 crore) after being tricked by a pretend on-line lover into investing in cryptocurrency. The sufferer is a resident of Western District and was trapped in February this yr after replying to a message on courting app Tinder, the South China Morning Post reported.
A resident of Sector 35, Bhavneet Singh Bhalla, misplaced ₹1.99 lakh to a cyber fraudster by clicking on a hyperlink despatched by way of SMS, Chandigarh Police mentioned on Saturday. (Image for representational objective)
The message was despatched by a fraudster posing as a feminine funding dealer based mostly in Singapore. The duo incessantly contacted one another via WhatsApp and reportedly developed a web based romantic relationship. It was then the person was persuaded to open an account on a pretend buying and selling web site for funding in digital cash.
According to report, the Italian monetary consultatnt was instructed that digital cash funding may yield excessive returns. Between March 6 and 23, he was satisfied to switch HK$14.2 million into 9 designated financial institution accounts, police mentioned.
When he was unable to get again his cash funding, the person realised he was duped in a rip-off. It was then he known as the police. According to legislation, the case has been termed as ‘obtaining property by deception’, and is punishable by as much as ten years in jail.
But this isn’t the only real case of ‘love scam’ preying on folks in Hong Kong. In February, a 63-year-old funding supervisor reportedly misplaced HK$12.8 million (roughly ₹12.8 crore) after a fraudster claiming to be a feminine cryptocurrency professional luring into opening an account on a bogus buying and selling web site.
As per authorities, such web sites or apps launched to the victims usually present surging cryptocurrency or inventory costs, however the info turned out to be pretend and managed by cyber criminals. The optimistic returns in these funding accounts have been set as much as coax victims into investing more cash.
The police mentioned that originally the victims could make small earnings however later find yourself struggling massive losses after placing more cash. In Hong Kong, the amount of cash misplaced via courting scams rose to ₹726.66 crore in 2021.
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Source: www.hindustantimes.com
