A master’s candidate at a Hong Kong university has lost over HK$500,000 (US$64,300) to scammers posing as mainland Chinese officials, who took her money then told her to travel to Thailand, prompting police to contact Interpol to rescue the student – the first time authorities have dealt with a victim being pushed to go overseas.
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The force on Thursday revealed details of the case as it reported that the number of university students scammed by fraudsters posing as government officials or law enforcement personnel had risen from an average of 24 between July to September to 91 in October.
There were 874 scam cases using such imposter tactics in the first 10 months of this year, with total losses reaching HK$1.42 billion – more than doubled the figure over the same period last year.
Of the cases, 283 involved university students, with 72 per cent coming from the mainland and the rest from the city.
“For students coming from the mainland, they might not be very familiar with Hong Kong upon their arrival,” Superintendent Theodora Lee Wai-see of the police’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre said.
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“Therefore, they might be particularly worried about losing their school spot or not being able to obtain maintenance fees from their parents.”