Fake insurer text tricks retiree into HK$650,000 transfer
HK01 · 3 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A 74-year-old retired man lost more than HK$650,000 after falling for a phishing text message that impersonated an insurance company and claimed he had successfully bought a policy. Believing he needed to cancel the supposed policy to avoid charges, he contacted a fake customer service agent on WhatsApp and was tricked into making repeated bank transfers.
Key Points
- Police said on the CyberDefender Facebook page that the victim earlier received a fake text message posing as an insurance company, saying he had “successfully purchased insurance”.
- The message told him that if he wanted to cancel the policy, he had to contact “customer service” through WhatsApp, which he did because he had never bought the insurance.
- The fraudster then told him to log into his personal online banking account for “policy cancellation verification” and enter a supposed verification code in the transfer amount field.
- The victim was falsely told the verification had failed and was persuaded to repeat the process several times, when he was in fact transferring his savings to the scammer.
- After multiple transactions, more than HK$650,000 had been transferred out before he realised he had been cheated and reported the case to police.
Why It Matters
The case shows how scammers are exploiting fear of unauthorised charges by using fake insurance notices and moving victims from text messages to WhatsApp and online banking steps. Police urged the public not to trust phone numbers, links or WhatsApp contacts in such messages, and to verify any policy or payment issue only through an insurer’s official hotline or app.