Post by anenro on Aug 18, 2015 15:34:34 GMT 4
Hong Kong couple detail fake fraud case that lost them HK$22.8m
Soprano and husband fell victim to gang claiming to be probing the 'biggest fraud case since 1949' and seeking a 'guarantee of innocence'
The fraudsters who cheated a veteran Hong Kong-based soprano out of HK$22.8 million, the largest reported loss to date in a spate of cross-border scams, posed as investigators of "the biggest fraud case since 1949" and said her musician husband was implicated.
According to the husband, erhu virtuoso Wang Guotong, 76, the money was borrowed from banks and friends and paid as a "guarantee of innocence" after conmen made regular midnight phone calls for two weeks, alleging the couple might be involved in a HK$60 million fraud.
Their case was the most expensive of 838 reported to police last month involving bogus mainland officials.
In a letter to Wen Wei Po, Wang wrote that the scam began when he and his wife, Li Yuanrong, 73, received a phone call last month from someone claiming to be with "Hongkong Post".
The fake postmen told Wang a parcel of his had been intercepted by "Shenzhen police", to whom the phone call was diverted. The call was then further diverted to "Shenzhen prosecutors" who "questioned" him and his wife, telling them: "This is the biggest fraud case since the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The central authorities are highly concerned."
In the ensuing days they were told gangsters had opened bank accounts in Shenzhen and Taiwan using Wang's identity and travel documents.
Some HK$60 million was said to have appeared in the bank accounts of a fake foundation named after Wang.
"An old woman even committed suicide," Wang said he was told. "Don't you feel heartbroken hearing such miserable tragedies?"
The con artists then told him they saw programmes on CCTV featuring Wang and "felt very touched".
"They said was innocent and needed to pay a guarantee of innocence," he recalled. "The amount grew from time to time.
"I said I really didn't have that much money and I was willing to be questioned in Shenzhen's detention centre," Wang added.
"They said: 'Once you're detained, you will not only become infamous, but those detained criminal gangsters will keep hurting you until you die.'"
It was earlier reported that staff members from a local bank and a remittance company had warned Li about a possible scam, but she ignored them.
Wang said in the letter that only when he and Li saw news reports of gangsters posing as central government officials did they realise they were being conned.
The couple moved to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1991.
The police yesterday said Wang and Li's case involved the largest sum of any of the recent cross-border scams. Others who lost more than HK$2.5 million included a doctor, university lecturer, businessmen, a security guard and a student.
THE MORAL OF THIS STORY: "JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE RICH, DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE SMART."
Soprano and husband fell victim to gang claiming to be probing the 'biggest fraud case since 1949' and seeking a 'guarantee of innocence'
The fraudsters who cheated a veteran Hong Kong-based soprano out of HK$22.8 million, the largest reported loss to date in a spate of cross-border scams, posed as investigators of "the biggest fraud case since 1949" and said her musician husband was implicated.
According to the husband, erhu virtuoso Wang Guotong, 76, the money was borrowed from banks and friends and paid as a "guarantee of innocence" after conmen made regular midnight phone calls for two weeks, alleging the couple might be involved in a HK$60 million fraud.
Their case was the most expensive of 838 reported to police last month involving bogus mainland officials.
In a letter to Wen Wei Po, Wang wrote that the scam began when he and his wife, Li Yuanrong, 73, received a phone call last month from someone claiming to be with "Hongkong Post".
The fake postmen told Wang a parcel of his had been intercepted by "Shenzhen police", to whom the phone call was diverted. The call was then further diverted to "Shenzhen prosecutors" who "questioned" him and his wife, telling them: "This is the biggest fraud case since the establishment of the People's Republic of China. The central authorities are highly concerned."
In the ensuing days they were told gangsters had opened bank accounts in Shenzhen and Taiwan using Wang's identity and travel documents.
Some HK$60 million was said to have appeared in the bank accounts of a fake foundation named after Wang.
"An old woman even committed suicide," Wang said he was told. "Don't you feel heartbroken hearing such miserable tragedies?"
The con artists then told him they saw programmes on CCTV featuring Wang and "felt very touched".
"They said was innocent and needed to pay a guarantee of innocence," he recalled. "The amount grew from time to time.
"I said I really didn't have that much money and I was willing to be questioned in Shenzhen's detention centre," Wang added.
"They said: 'Once you're detained, you will not only become infamous, but those detained criminal gangsters will keep hurting you until you die.'"
It was earlier reported that staff members from a local bank and a remittance company had warned Li about a possible scam, but she ignored them.
Wang said in the letter that only when he and Li saw news reports of gangsters posing as central government officials did they realise they were being conned.
The couple moved to Hong Kong from the mainland in 1991.
The police yesterday said Wang and Li's case involved the largest sum of any of the recent cross-border scams. Others who lost more than HK$2.5 million included a doctor, university lecturer, businessmen, a security guard and a student.
THE MORAL OF THIS STORY: "JUST BECAUSE YOU ARE RICH, DOES NOT MEAN YOU ARE SMART."
