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[Hong Kong Police: 2 received more than 150 WhatsApp account-hijacking cases during the week; a virtual currency exchange company lost more than 4000000 Hong Kong dollars]

Hong Kong Police announced that, over the past 2 weeks, they received more than 150 WhatsApp account-hijacking fraud cases, with total losses exceeding 15000000 Hong Kong dollars. Recently, an employee of a local company engaged in virtual currency exchange had their account hijacked. Fraudsters blocked the original work group and blacklisted its members, copied the group image, name, members and profile pictures to create a fake group, and impersonated a client representative to request an exchange. Following normal practice, the victim first transferred cryptocurrency to the wallet designated by the other party, and only discovered the fraud after finding that the client's account had insufficient balance and calling to verify it. The company lost more than 4000000 Hong Kong dollars. Police reminded the public that WhatsApp groups can be forged, but members' phone numbers cannot be exactly the same as those in the genuine group, nor can the publication times of messages be replicated. They recommended enabling two-factor authentication, verifying the other party by phone before transferring funds, and avoiding logging into accounts on public WiFi or public computers.