Major Cryptocurrency Theft in Hong Kong: Man Robbed of HK$4 Million in Sham Shui Po Virtual Exchange

COINOTAG news, on September 26, according to Sing Tao Daily, the Hong Kong police reported a major theft case that occurred in a virtual currency exchange shop in Sham Shui Po District. A 43-year-old man was robbed while trading HK$4 million in cash, and the police have arrested two men involved in the case. On the afternoon of September 25, the victim brought HK$4 million in cash to a virtual currency exchange in a shopping mall on Cheung Sha Wan Road in Sham Shui Po to buy cryptocurrency. After handing the cash to the female clerk, the victim noticed something unusual and tried to leave, but found that he was locked in the store, so he called the police.After investigation, the police arrested two men holding Hong Kong identity cards on the 25th and 26th on charges of “conspiracy to steal”. They are suspected of conspiring with the female clerk and many others to open a virtual currency exchange shop to steal customers’ cash transaction funds. The 23-year-old suspect has been provisionally charged with one count of “conspiracy to steal” and was brought to court at the West Kowloon Magistrates’ Courts on the morning of the 26th; the 30-year-old suspect is still under investigation. The police revealed that the exchange shop involved had been open for about a month and a half, and the victim had previously made two successful transactions of approximately HK$400,000 and HK$800,000 in early September. This may be a trap set by the scammers to gain trust and induce the victim to increase his investment to HK$4 million. It is worth noting that 12 similar cases have been reported in the West Kowloon area in the first nine months of this year, with a total amount of HK$10.8 million involved. In these cases, the victims were either stolen or robbed during cash transactions, or did not receive the corresponding funds after transferring out cryptocurrencies.