Fraudsters posing as police trick students into buying gold in Hong Kong for fake investigations

At least nine students aged between 19 and 26, currently studying in the United Kingdom, Australia and other countries, have fallen victim to such cross-border impersonation scams, according to authorities. Each victim lost as much as HKD1.5 million (US$191,531), as reported by South China Morning Post.

Fraudsters, posing as officials from Shanghai’s public security bureau and Hong Kong’s Independent Commission Against Corruption (ICAC), accused the students of involvement in money laundering or other offences and demanded their cooperation.

“Their losses ranged from HKD740,000 to HKD1.57 million,” the force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre said on its website.

Victims were instructed to travel to Hong Kong and purchase gold pellets from jewelry shops under the guise of assisting investigations.

Afterward, the scammers switched identities, claiming to be ICAC officers, and arranged in-person meetings to collect the gold before disappearing.

The victims later realized they had been deceived and reported the cases to police.

The police also said they had arrested three mainland Chinese men, aged between 25 and 37, in connection with seven cases in which overseas students were deceived into buying gold, according to The Standard.

Authorities stressed that no law enforcement agency in Hong Kong, mainland China or overseas would require individuals to buy gold, hand over cash or surrender valuables for investigative purposes.

“Anyone claiming to be a law enforcer and requesting the in-person handover of property or unreasonable transfers is almost certainly a scammer,” police said.

In a separate case, the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau warned of romance-investment scams, also known as “pig-butchering”, after a 61-year-old retired man lost more than HKD2.5 million.

The victim met a woman on Facebook who claimed to be an IT professional based in Taiwan.

“The pair exchanged daily messages, shared personal details, and soon addressed each other affectionately as ‘baby’,” police said.

After gaining his trust, the scammer introduced investment opportunities, claiming expertise in the U.S. stock market and directing him to a fraudulent website.

She told the victim the platform used artificial intelligence to provide accurate investment advice and “high-return, low-risk” strategies.

Following her instructions, the man transferred more than HKD2.5 million to bank accounts provided by the scammer.

He later discovered the fraud after losing access to the website. Police said that in the second week of this month alone, they handled more than 80 reports of online investment scams involving losses exceeding HKD80 million.