Officers in the five-day Operation Spikewind busted 21 online scams and arrested 32 people aged 19 to 75.

According to police, the cases involved online dating, fake compensated dating, email scams and even online shopping. The victims each lost around HK$1,000 to HK$3 million, amounting to over HK$9.1 million in total.

In one case, a female investment manager aged around 30 lost up to HK$3 million in an online romance scam. She met a man who claimed to be a “foreign pilot” in early 2021 and the they soon became an online couple.

The “pilot” claimed he wanted to send the woman jewelry as gifts three months after they met. He then pretended to be a staffer from logistic company and lured the woman to transferred about HK$3 million to 21 bank accounts in the name of duties and transportation fees.

The arrestees included five men and 15 women, as well as 12 non-Chinese women. They were arrested for obtaining property by deception and theft. They have been released on bail.

Police added that none of the arrestees is related to triad society and most of them were the holders of stooge bank accounts.

As for 12 non-Chinese women, police said they were all foreign domestic helpers. The fraudsters behind the crime bought their bank accounts for money laundering with only a few hundreds or thousands of Hong Kong dollars.

Police said investigation is still ongoing and didn't rule out more arrest to be made.