Scams take toll as international policing seen as key

Over 270 reports of losses in the Fun Coffee investment scam have been reported to the police, totaling more than HK$113 million. Victims, aged between 32 and 83, suffered losses ranging from HK$3,000 to HK$9.63 million. The Fun Coffee app went offline in mid-July, leaving investors unable to retrieve their deposited funds. Senior superintendent Kung Hing-fun of the Commercial Crime Bureau explained that the force has been collaborating with international law enforcement agencies to combat fraudulent activities, particularly those claiming to be headquartered overseas.

Joint operations, such as the arrest of eight individuals in Macao, have been carried out alongside local arrests in Hong Kong.

A similar case involving the cryptocurrency trading platform JPEX, which led to the city's largest alleged financial fraud in recent years, has seen over 2,800 victims and losses exceeding HK$1.6 billion. Since the case surfaced in 2023, 81 arrests were made, with 29 charged for offenses like conspiracy to defraud, money laundering, perverting the course of justice, and fraudulently inducing others to invest in virtual assets.

Kung emphasized that celebrities or key opinion leaders (KOLs) often promote such projects to lure investors. In the JPEX case, the force utilized a new offense to prosecute KOLs who recklessly and fraudulently promoted crypto trading. In the first half of the year, police recorded 20,613 scam cases, with losses totaling HK$3.5 billion. Of these, 2,151 cases, or around one-tenth, were investment scams.