A 66-year-old retiree in Hong Kong lost about 6.6 million Hong Kong dollars (around $840,000) after falling victim to three linked cryptocurrency investment scams, the Hong Kong Police Force’s CyberDefender unit reported.
According to a March 20 post by CyberDefender on Facebook, the victim was first contacted in September 2025 via WhatsApp by someone claiming to be a “virtual currency investment expert.” The scammer promised steady returns and instructed the retiree to transfer funds and deposit crypto into a wallet controlled by the fraudster. After sending roughly $180,000, the victim found the contact had disappeared and filed a police report.
Rather than give up, the retiree later sought help online and was approached by another person who said they could recover the lost assets. That individual demanded a $75,000 “security deposit.” After the payment, that second supposed expert also vanished.
In January, a third scammer messaged the retiree offering to recover both earlier losses if the victim purchased about $585,000 in cryptocurrency and sent it to an address provided by the fraudster. The retiree complied, and the third scammer disappeared as well, leaving the total loss at roughly $840,000 over a six-month period.
CyberDefender warned that fraudsters often recycle the same victims across successive schemes, escalating from “guaranteed profit” pitches to fake recovery services. The unit advised caution against unsolicited outreach from people claiming to be investment professionals and flagged promises of “guaranteed returns” or “inside information” as classic red flags.
The incident comes amid a wider rise in crypto-related fraud. Web3 platforms suffered an estimated $3.95 billion in losses in 2025, with state-linked hackers and weak key security among the main causes, according to security firm Hacken. Authorities globally have also flagged increased phishing and investment scams, from fake tokens to large-scale multi-jurisdiction probes and asset forfeiture actions tied to crypto investment fraud.
CyberDefender’s post underscores how social engineering and repeated victim targeting can magnify losses and highlights the importance of skepticism toward unsolicited offers and recovery promises in the crypto space.