A Hong Kong resident has lost more than HK$4 million (US$512,148) to scammers after trying to sell a rug for HK$100 on online marketplace Carousell, according to police.
The force also said on Monday that more than 110 cases of online shopping scams linked to the trading platform took place between January 24 and 30, with the total amount of money involved exceeding HK$10 million.
One victim, who listed the rug for sale on Carousell for HK$100, was contacted by a scammer posing as an interested buyer.
The victim was later sent a payment link via WhatsApp and entered relevant bank account details.
“A fake Carousell staff member contacted the victim via WhatsApp, claiming there were issues with their account that caused the payment to fail,” police said in a post on their CyberDefender Facebook page.
“The victim was then asked multiple times to provide a ‘transaction verification one-time password’ to assist with ‘account verification’.
