If your parents get scammed, you’re very likely to be the last one to find out. A cross-generational romance involving a retired 71-year-old aunt in Hong Kong is especially tragic.
Be careful of all kinds of scams that target seniors.
This aunt met a man on Facebook who claimed to be an employee of an electricity company. Without ever meeting in person, they started an online relationship.
He first asked her to download a fake investment app. The numbers kept going up on the screen, but she couldn’t withdraw the money.
Then he said he’d been arrested in Singapore for money laundering and asked her to transfer bail and legal fees, and to have the elderly aunt herself go to a cryptocurrency exchange shop to get cash and deposit it into the wallet he specified.
After she exhausted her savings, she borrowed from friends and financial companies. In total, she made 17 transfers, sending out nearly HK$2.9 million, until a financial company came after the debt. With nowhere left to turn, she asked her daughter for money—only then was the scam finally exposed…
Be careful of all kinds of scams that target seniors.
This aunt met a man on Facebook who claimed to be an employee of an electricity company. Without ever meeting in person, they started an online relationship.
He first asked her to download a fake investment app. The numbers kept going up on the screen, but she couldn’t withdraw the money.
Then he said he’d been arrested in Singapore for money laundering and asked her to transfer bail and legal fees, and to have the elderly aunt herself go to a cryptocurrency exchange shop to get cash and deposit it into the wallet he specified.
After she exhausted her savings, she borrowed from friends and financial companies. In total, she made 17 transfers, sending out nearly HK$2.9 million, until a financial company came after the debt. With nowhere left to turn, she asked her daughter for money—only then was the scam finally exposed…
