Foreign woman loses HK$2 million in hotel task scam
AM730 · 3 SOURCESabout 3 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
A foreign woman lost more than HK$2 million within a few days after she was drawn in by a Facebook recruitment post advertising high commissions for online hotel booking tasks. The scammers later contacted her through WhatsApp and directed her to a fake hotel reservation website, where she was told to transfer money repeatedly to personal bank accounts in order to complete bookings and earn commissions. Although the bogus platform showed commissions had been credited to her account, she discovered the fraud only after she was unable to withdraw funds and called the Anti-Scam Helpline 18222 after discussing the matter with family members. Police said they received more than 20 online job scam reports in the past week alone, with total losses of nearly HK$10 million.
Key Points
- The victim first noticed a Facebook recruitment advertisement promoting online hotel booking tasks with supposedly high commissions and left a message to apply.
- After that, fraudsters approached her on WhatsApp, gave her a fake hotel reservation website link and a referral code, and asked her to register.
- Following instructions from customer service on the fake site, she made multiple transfers to different personal bank accounts to place hotel bookings.
- Her account on the bogus platform displayed that commissions had been deposited, but she later found she could not withdraw any money.
- After consulting family members, she called the Anti-Scam Helpline 18222 and learned she had been cheated out of more than HK$2 million.
Why It Matters
The case shows how so-called quick-money online job offers can be structured to look like legitimate platform work, using social media ads, messaging apps and fake account balances to build trust. For Hong Kong residents, the warning is practical: police are seeing repeated losses from similar scams, and the combination of “high return, low risk” claims and requests to transfer money to personal accounts remains a clear danger sign