Two Weeks See Over 150 WhatsApp Account Hijacking Cases, Hong Kong Virtual Currency Exchange Company Loses Over HK$4 Million

Odaily: Hong Kong police announced that over the past two weeks, they have received more than 150 reports of WhatsApp account hijacking scams, with total losses exceeding HK$15 million. Recently, an employee at a local company engaged in virtual currency exchange services fell victim to account hijacking. The scammers blocked the original work group chat, blacklisted its members, and created a fake group by copying the group's images, name, members, and profile pictures, impersonating a client representative to request an exchange. The victim, following usual practice, first transferred cryptocurrency to a wallet designated by the other party, and only realized it was a scam after discovering the client's account had insufficient balance and calling to verify. The company lost over HK$4 million.

Police reminded the public that WhatsApp group chats can be faked, but members' phone numbers cannot be completely identical to those in a real group chat, nor can the timestamps of messages be replicated. They advised enabling two-factor authentication, verifying the other party by phone before transferring funds, and avoiding logging into accounts on public WiFi or public computers.