Furniture group scam drains woman’s $670K in crypto

A woman from Hong Kong lost HK$5.2 million or US$670,000 when a scammer from a second-hand furniture social media group tricked her into joining a fake $USDT trading scheme.

The Hong Kong police talked about the case on their CyberDefender platform on Monday.

The woman sent the scammer +60 cash and crypto transfers to accounts she controlled. She only found out about the scam when the fake platform would not let her withdraw her money.

How the furniture group scam worked

The scammer in the HK$5.2 million or US$670,000 case used a strange way to get in.

Instead of trying to get to the victim through a dating app or investment forum, the person became a member of a community for buying and selling used furniture, where people would have little reason to think they were being scammed.

After getting in touch, the scammer showed the victim a website for trading $USDT and helped them with dozens of transactions over time.

The drip-feed method, which spreads the theft over more than 60 transfers, is a common way to keep the amounts small enough that they don’t set off alarms right away.

The police have warned that there are scammers in “every” online community, even those that have nothing to do with money or crypto.

Authorities told people to check the credibility of any investment platform before sending money and suggested using the “Scameter” tool on the CyberDefender website or mobile app to check the risk of fraud on suspicious URLs.

The case isn’t unique. The Hong Kong police have seen almost 100 similar fraud cases in a single week. Police said that the total losses from more than 80 fraud cases in one week were more than HK$80 million or US$10.2 million.

On April 25, Cryptopolitan reported that two other women from Hong Kong lost a total of HK$9.7 million or US$1.24 million to crypto scammers in two different cases.

In one of the cases, a woman lost HK$7.7 million or US$1 million after a contact on Telegram tricked her into investing through a fake platform that promised returns from “quantitative trading” and “AI algorithms.”

She sent 17 transfers of $USDT and Ether (ETH) before she realized that withdrawals were blocked.

In another case from the same week, a woman over 50 lost HK$2 million or US$256,000 in a romance scam that started on Instagram.

Cryptopolitan says that the scammer spent months building an emotional connection before offering a fake investment scheme.

Police have told people to be wary of unsolicited investment advice, especially if it comes from unexpected sources or promises guaranteed returns.