Two suspects stole approximately $5,00,000 from fraudulent Bitcoin transactions in Hong Kong. As per the South China Morning Post reports, the victims, aged 33 and 31, were deceived by two scammers in a fake Bitcoin transactions. The fraudsters who pretended as Bitcoin sellers succeeded in stealing HK$3.85 million ($495,650) from the victims. The victims work at a money exchange company. They traveled to a shop in Tin Hau to acquire Bitcoin with the cash. Meantime, an anonymous middleman introduced the buyers to the fake Bitcoin sellers. Once the victims handed over the cash to the fraudulent sellers, the another one left the shop with money, claiming to carry out some paperwork about the transaction.
Moreover, the buyers speculated something fishy about the transaction when the scammer did not come back after a long time. While the clients tried to locate the seller with the money, the fraudster endeavored to escape when the victims threatened to inform the matter to the police. Following a brief chase, they caught the fake Bitcoin seller and handed him over to the law enforcement. Additionally, the suspect is in police custody withstanding interrogation. His colleague who escaped with the money remains at large.
Bitcoin’s surge in price attracts substantial amounts of fraudsters?
While Bitcoin is enjoying a significant bull run and garnering popularity, hackers find new ways to deceive innocent people. In Hong Kong, there have been various reports of people falling into the trap of fraudsters. In January 2021, a group of robbers seized nearly $450,000 from a woman in Hong Kong at knifepoint. As part of the robbery process, one of the criminals pretended as a proposed cryptocurrency buyer. The woman had earlier carried several crypto transactions for the man, reaching between HK$600,000 and HK$700,000.
Apart from robbery happening in Hong Kong, fraudsters have also discovered various innovative ways. Scammers back in January were trading the COVID-19 vaccine on the dark web, demanding customers to spend as high as $1,000 in BTC for a single dose. Company researchers set an order for one vaccine dose. Additionally, the vendor communicated them via the encrypted messaging application Telegram and provided a vaccine made in China for $750 in Bitcoin. The researchers continued with the payment, gave their delivery address. However, the seller deleted his account, and the package did not come.
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