Late last year, Jonathan Crompton, Hong Kong-based partner at Reynolds Porter Chamberlain, advised a medical professional based in South Asia who fell victim to crypto fraud after a seemingly innocuous WhatsApp message from a Hong Kong number.
Perpetrators of the scam used Hong Kong phone numbers to strike up virtual friendships with victims, gain their trust, and then ask them to deposit funds into accounts on fake cryptocurrency exchanges. The scammers eventually stopped replying to messages, but not before persuading victims to convince their friends and family to deposit funds with the fake platform, too, explains Crompton.
He says the victim he worked with, and that person’s friends, lost a “large portion” of what they thought they had invested. “I know some very intelligent, sensible people that have fallen victim to scams, but they all have the same response, which is: how could I?” he adds.