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Police are tracing the flow of HK$1.4 million transferred by the family of a 21-year-old Hong Kong university student who was duped into a "virtual kidnapping" scam and manipulated into staging her own abduction in Thailand.
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Read more: Hong Kong student rescued from multinational 'virtual kidnapping' plot in Thailand
Police said on Saturday (Jun 6) that the woman has returned to Hong Kong safely after being located by Thai authorities, but the money already paid by her family had been transferred through multiple local bank accounts.
According to police, the student's father reported a suspected kidnapping on June 1 after receiving ransom demands. Investigators later found that the woman had fallen victim to fraudsters posing as mainland officials, who falsely claimed she was under investigation and instructed her to ask her family to pay HK$1.4 million as a "security deposit."
After the family transferred the money into bank accounts designated by the scammers, the fraudsters directed the student to travel to Thailand and stage her own kidnapping, sending fabricated photos to her family while demanding a further HK$3 million in ransom.
Police said the father became suspicious of the photos and alerted authorities, leading investigators to conclude that the woman had been deceived rather than abducted.
Following coordination between Hong Kong and Thai police, the student was located and returned safely to Hong Kong.
The HK$1.4 million already paid by the family has since been moved through several local bank accounts, and officers are now investigating the accounts and tracing the flow of funds.
The case has been classified as obtaining property by deception, and no arrests have been made.
