Highlights
- Sydney man Michael* says he was led into an investment scam by someone he thought was a “beautiful” woman he met online.
- He says NSW Police weren’t able to help him recover his lost funds as the scam originated overseas.
- According to the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission, migrant communities are disproportionately vulnerable to such scams.
Michael tells SBS Chinese his family is unaware he’s lost most of his life savings to scammers.
It started in July when an individual posing as a young woman began befriending him online.
They chatted every day before the conversation shifted to her boasting about high returns from investing in the stock market.
She tried to prove her authenticity by sharing investment performance slips, a physical address in mainland China and “beautiful photos of herself,” Michael says.
He then informed her that he had made failed investments in the past that led to him declaring bankruptcy and had no interest in investing again.
“After that she regularly sent me performance slips, showing profits of 10 and even 50 per cent,” he says.
Tricked into buying Hong Kong stocks
The young woman then told Michael she had learned and followed her uncle to achieve the high returns and encouraged him to jump on the next investment opportunity.
Michael says he then sold $100,000 worth of Australian stocks and followed instructions from the woman’s uncle to buy a small-cap stock on the Hong Kong stock exchange through an Australian-based investment firm.
After placing the order, the price plummeted sharply before collapsing by the afternoon.
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網上詐騙投資 受訪雪梨香港移民損失高達12萬
“I couldn’t even sell it,” Michael says.
He was left with $20,000 after managing to sell off the stock over two to three days.
Michael is convinced he was part of a large-scale, cross-border fraud event, where scammers gathered as many people to simultaneously invest in a stock to pump up its value before its promoters dumped the stock at high prices.
He says the woman’s uncle explained to him the stock price drop was due to the withdrawal of funds from major shareholders and promised he’d guide Michael through the next investment opportunity to recover his lost funds.
Tricked by the same person
By mid-November, Michael says he used his final savings worth $45,000 to invest in cryptocurrencies through a website called Coinifp.
While making the bank transfer, he was contacted by his bank warning him that his transactions could be subject to fraud.
Ignoring the bank’s advice, Michael went ahead with the transfers, converting Australian dollars into US dollars in accordance with the advice of another man introduced to him by the woman’s uncle.
A few hours passed before he realised he was again deceived and was left with a zero balance.
That day he received a message on Chinese social media WeChat from an individual claiming to be from Hong Kong police.
Scammers used WeChat to pose as Hong Kong police. Source: SBS
The message read that if he wanted police to hunt down the scammers, it would involve investigations that would take place in mainland China and needed additional resources.
If he wanted the investigation to go ahead, he would have to deposit money via a link.
I woke up at that point. I would not be fooled this time.
When he reported the incident to NSW police, they told him his fraud case would be difficult to investigate as it originated in a foreign country and the Australian investment firm had acted legally as the broker.
NSW Police Multicultural Community Liaison Officer Clorinda Lee warns people to be cautious when meeting strangers online and to be extra vigilant when they start talking about money.
“Scammers use endless tricks. They use the idea of making money to lure people and establish relationships with them to make them less wary [of deception],” says Ms Lee.
She tells SBS Chinese that the actual number of financial losses to scams potentially outweigh reported cases due to cultures of shame within families if they were to find out.
Migrant communities are disproportionately vulnerable to scams: ACCC
Over the past year, financial losses to scams have increased by 87 per cent to $236 million, the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission says.
There have been more than 240,000 reports to Scamwatch during this year alone.
The highest losses have been reported from investment scams, amounting to $121 million.
Michael says he’s always been a risk-taker and stubborn when it comes to listening to other people’s advice.
Consumers like him who speak English as a second language are vulnerable, reporting $36 million in losses, a 92 per cent increase from last year.
He blames himself for his financial loss and says if he had the opportunity to go to mainland China in the future, he’d raise the issue with the local police.
He says he’s learnt his lesson and has vowed to not respond to calls from strangers who reach out to him online or over the phone.
*Name changed for privacy concerns
