TechFlow news — On September 26, according to reports from the Hong Kong Economic Times, the Hong Kong Police reported a major theft case at a cryptocurrency exchange shop in the Sham Shui Po district. A 43-year-old man was robbed of HK$4 million in cash during a transaction, and police have arrested two men in connection with the incident. On the afternoon of September 25, the victim brought HK$4 million in cash to a virtual currency exchange located in a mall on Cheung Sha Wan Road, Sham Shui Po, intending to purchase cryptocurrency. After handing over the cash to a female clerk, he sensed something amiss and attempted to leave, only to find himself locked inside the store, prompting him to call the police.
Following investigations, police arrested two Hong Kong ID card holders—aged 23 and 30—on September 25 and 26 respectively, on charges of "conspiracy to steal." They are suspected of colluding with the female clerk and others to operate the cryptocurrency exchange as a front for stealing customers' cash payments. The 23-year-old suspect has been provisionally charged with one count of "conspiracy to steal" and appeared in West Kowloon Magistrates' Court on the morning of September 26; the 30-year-old suspect remains under investigation.
Police revealed that the implicated exchange had been in operation for about one and a half months. The victim had previously conducted two successful transactions in early September, amounting to approximately HK$400,000 and HK$800,000 respectively—likely part of a confidence-building scam designed to lure the victim into increasing his investment to HK$4 million. Notably, in the first nine months of this year, the West Kowloon region has recorded 12 similar cases, involving a total sum of HK$10.8 million. In these incidents, victims either had their cash stolen or robbed during physical transactions, or failed to receive corresponding cryptocurrency after transferring funds.
