A Hong Kong woman lost nearly $982,000 to a fake AI trading platform, part of a wider fraud wave that cost the city close to $10 million in one week.
Hong Kong AI Scam Losses
The victim made 17 transfers in USDT (USDT) and Ether (ETH) to a fraudulent platform, losing about HK$7.7 million.
Hong Kong Police said the scheme began on Telegram, where a stranger posed as an investment expert and pitched an AI-powered trading strategy with guaranteed returns. Her withdrawal requests were denied once the funds were in.
That was when she realized the platform was fake.
Officials linked the case to a wider surge. Authorities logged more than 80 similar cases in a single week, with combined losses near HK$80 million.
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Police urged residents to treat unsolicited investment pitches with skepticism and to run any platform through the official CyberDefender tool before sending money. No legitimate investment guarantees returns, officials stressed.
The pattern is not new. Last month, a 66-year-old retiree lost HK$6.6 million to a six-month scheme in which fraudsters first posed as advisors, then returned with a fake recovery offer to extract more funds.
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