Police in Hong Kong arrested a Chinese man who bilked a 90-year-old woman out of more than US$32 million ($247 million in local Hong Kong currency) by claiming that she was the victim of an identity theft ring in mainland China, CNN reports.
The woman contacted Hong Kong police on March 2nd and told them that she had made ten separate payments to the scammers. One of the conmen, a 19-year-old man, claimed to be with the mainland Chinese police and had visited the woman, giving her a cell phone which he told her was only to be used to contact them.
The conmen told the woman that she needed to make the transfers to two separate bank accounts in order for the fake police track the purported scammers. She made the transactions as instructed.
The actual police arrested the 19-year-old man March 20th. They have not been able to recover the woman's money.