In the previous week, an alarming extortion rip-off has focused 59 Hong Kong residents, together with 4 ladies, leading to losses exceeding HK$1.9 million (US$244,430), South China Morning Post reported. According to the police, who revealed the figures on their CyberDefender Facebook web page, the rip-off sometimes includes extortionists – typically ladies – luring male victims into undressing throughout video chats after which secretly recording the acts.
The scammers then use the footage to coerce victims into fee by threatening to share the movies on-line or with their family and mates. In some instances, scammers additionally pose as charming, high-income, educated males to focus on ladies on social media. They use flattery and candy discuss to realize belief, manipulating victims by studying about their private pursuits and lives.
”They use candy discuss to be taught concerning the victims’ private lives and pursuits to govern them. In the previous week, police obtained 59 instances of naked-chat blackmail, with scammers extorting greater than HK$1.9 million. Four instances concerned feminine victims,” the pressure stated.
In the primary half of this 12 months, college students comprised 20% of the 1,102 victims, with fraudsters pocketing over HK$31 million. Comparing year-over-year knowledge, stories of “naked-chat blackmail” surged 50% from 1,402 in 2022 to 2,117 in 2023, whereas losses doubled from HK$22 million to HK$44 million.
Moreover, deception instances in Hong Kong have elevated by 12% from 21,798 to 24,407 between January and July this 12 months. Losses skyrocketed 50% to HK$5.14 billion throughout the identical interval. Law enforcement responded by arresting over 6,000 suspects linked to scams and associated actions this 12 months.
The police are actually cautioning residents to train vigilance when assembly individuals on-line. They emphasise the significance of verifying identities and profiles, avoiding intimate actions on video chats, and reporting suspicious actions instantly.
Recently, a number of Hong Kong males fell prey to a romance rip-off that used deepfake synthetic intelligence to lure its victims into parting with greater than $46 million. As per CNN, the suspects aged 21 to 34, have been largely well-educated, with lots of them digital media and know-how graduates allegedly recruited by the gang after attending native universities. The suspects allegedly labored with IT specialists abroad to construct a pretend cryptocurrency platform, the place the victims have been coerced to make investments, police stated.