PANews reported on October 15 that according to Hong Kong 01, the Hong Kong police smashed a local fraud group and arrested 27 people. They were suspected of defrauding many local and overseas victims during the operation of about one year, with a total amount of defrauded up to HK$360 million. The investigation revealed that the group used a number of young people with relatively high education, divided the group members into different teams to defraud, provided them with "training manuals" and instructed them on how to fake tragic life stories to attract victims to develop online relationships with them, and then defraud money by "investing in cryptocurrency". They also set up a "performance list" to encourage group members to "rush performance". The team that topped the list defrauded more than US$266,000 (more than HK$2.06 million) in the past month.
Senior Superintendent Fong Chi-kin of the New Territories South Regional Criminal Headquarters pointed out that the fraud group that was busted hired graduates majoring in digital media from local universities as "technology specialists", and collaborated with overseas fraudsters and IT professionals to set up a fake cryptocurrency investment platform. They also used deepfake technology to create characters that were quite attractive in appearance, personality, occupation, and academic qualifications, develop online relationships with the victims, and then trick them into investing in cryptocurrency.