Crypto Scams Increasing in Hong Kong, Victims Lost $27M So Far in 2021

People spend too much time at home because of the pandemic, and thus they become an easy target for cryptocurrency scams, according to Hong Kong police.

Hong Kong’s cryptocurrency related scams soared to new record levels as the local police detected 496 such cases in the first six months of this year. Victims lost with over $27 million, with one individual reportedly losing nearly $16 million.

Crypto Scams Increase in Hong Kong

South China Morning Post, wrote that crimes involving virtual currencies in Hong Kong rose significantly in the first six months of 2021 and reached a total of nearly $27 million. While last year in total, the losses stood at less than $15 million.

According to Chief Inspector and head of the police’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau, Lester Ip Cheuk-yu, the main reason behind the issue is the COVID-19 pandemic. He said that people browse the Internet much more since they work from home, and thus exposing themself as easy targets for hackers:

“People have also been staying at home more, which means they spend longer on the internet, so scammers have more avenues to approach them online.”

Hong Kong authorities estimated that the number of total cases of crypto related crimes between January and July 2021 were 496. Interestingly, more than half of the $27 million registered losses were conned out of a 30-year-old man who parted with almost $16 million after he was lured into a shady Filecoin investment.

Inspector Cheuk-yu said that many residents don’t understand cryptocurrencies or “overestimate their knowledge of it.” He sounded a note of caution that scammers target mainly youngsters as they are the ones who deal more with digital assets:

“Younger people tend to fall victim to those scams because many of them purchase coins from cryptocurrency ATMs, whereas older people might not be technologically savvy enough to know how to use them.”

UK Is the Crypto Scammers’ Paradise

Hong Kong is not the only place where crimes involving Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other digital assets are booming. According to David Lindberg, Chief Executive of retail banking at NatWest, the scammers love the United Kingdom. He said that he had “never seen a market worse” than the UK for scams.

Lindberg stressed that the issue might lead to devastating consequences for some individuals. He suggested that the British government, the police, banks, and social media operators should join forces and combat the fraudsters:

“Fraud and scams are an industry. They’re intelligent, and they move fast, and it’s heartbreaking to see how they try to destroy lives.”

The banker also warned that some of the bad actors create websites where people can invest in Bitcoin, Ethereum, and other cryptocurrencies, but instead, they are fake, and the money goes to the fraudsters’ pockets: