Hong Kong Police Bust $46M Asia-Wide Deepfake Crypto Romance Scam
Hassan, a Cryptonews.com journalist with 6+ years of experience in Web3 journalism, brings deep knowledge across Crypto, Web3 Gaming, NFTs, and Play-to-Earn sectors. His work has appeared in...
In a major cross-border operation, Hong Kong police have dismantled a sophisticated crypto romance scam that defrauded victims out of $46 million.
This operation, which targeted men across multiple countries, used advanced deepfake technology and was orchestrated by a fraud syndicate that ran a well-organized, large-scale scam center in Hong Kong.
The scam lured victims into fake romantic relationships, ultimately leading them to invest in bogus cryptocurrency platforms.
According to a local source, the syndicate’s operations were uncovered in a raid on a Hung Hom industrial building, involving 27 individuals, many of whom were recent university graduates specializing in digital media.
They used deepfake technology to create highly convincing personas that appealed to their victims, like fake online profiles featuring AI-generated photos of attractive women.
These personas were used to initiate and foster romantic relationships with unsuspecting men across Hong Kong, mainland China, Taiwan, India, and Singapore.
The syndicate utilized deepfake technology not only in photographs but also during video calls. They manipulated both the appearances and voices of scammers to match the idealized images that victims believed to be their romantic partners.
Over time, the victims were coaxed into making significant investments in fake cryptocurrency platforms, believing they were participating in lucrative financial opportunities.
The fraudsters reinforced this deception by showing the victims fabricated transaction records, which falsely
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