Fraudsters disguising as lawyers pulling victim into 2nd scam

The police identifies new scamming methods, where fraudsters target victims under the guise of transactional relationships.

They would then defraud the victims a second time by pretending to be lawyers to help retrieve the money, psychologically exploiting the victims' as they fall deeper into the scam.

Officers of the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau successfully cracked down on a fraud syndicate targeting victims under the guise of transactional relationships.

In this operation, we arrested eight local individuals, aged between 23 and 57, including the mastermind and key members of the syndicate.

This syndicated is linked to 80 cases reported between February 2024 and July 2026, involving over 6.2 million Hong Kong dollars.

The police says the scammers understand victims' psychology well. They tailor their image to each victim and get in touch with them through social media. They would pretend to offer a monthly allowance of 50,000 to 70,000 dollars and rope in an accomplice pretending to be lawyer to sign a non-disclosure agreement.

They would ask the victim to pay legal fees and promise a refund once the agreement ended, but disappear while the payment is being cleared. They would then reappear under a new identity and pull the victim into a second scam by pretending to be lawyers offering help, claiming they can assist them with retrieving lost funds.

Police clinical psychologist Fung Ho-kin says the involvement of "lawyers" made the victims believe they are safe and caused them to fall victim a second time.

The police say to avoid such scams, victims should directly contact reputable law firms. The public could also download scameter+, an official anti-fraud app operated by The Hong Kong Police Force.

The scameter+ app analyses data collected from the police, the public, and private institutions. The app can then send notifications to users when a suspected scam is detected.