Housewife conned of HK$8.5m in Bitcoin scam on Xiaohongshu

A housewife was conned of HK$8.5 million in a Bitcoin scam after meeting a fake investment agent on mainland social media Xiaohongshu, police said. 

Police mentioned this latest case in a Facebook post Friday to remind citizens to beware of fraudsters who have now infiltrated different social media platforms, including the mainland ones. 

According to police, the fraudsters first made an impression on the housewife that she was making a profit from the so-called investment and further persuaded her to put more money into the investment. 

Yet, when the housewife wished to withdraw money from the investment account, the fraudsters continuously asked her to pay “withdrawal fees.” The housewife finally realized she was cheated by the fraudsters and filed a report to the police. 

Police then called on citizens to beware of strangers approaching them on social media platforms for so-called investments and encouraged the public the report suspected frauds by dialing 18222.