Hong Kong police investigate $15.4 million scam on Hounax trading platform

The Hong Kong Police person initiated an enquiry into Hounax, a cryptocurrency trading platform, pursuing galore complaints totaling $15.4 cardinal successful reported scams, the South China Morning Post reported connected Nov. 27.

Victims claimed they were enticed to put successful crypto connected the level but faced difficulties withdrawing funds. Some victims person blamed the authorities for their losses.

One victim, Ng, who mislaid astir HK$150,000 to the scam, explained however the scammers built users’ spot by providing fiscal proposal connected stocks done Meta-owned societal media platforms Facebook and WhatsApp.

Ng claimed to person conducted thorough owed diligence connected the level and recovered it listed successful a Canadian concern registry. Additionally, a hunt connected the Hong Kong constabulary CyberDefender website, known for flagging online scams, yielded nary results for the platform.

Thus, the Hong Kong authorities’ Nov. 1 informing astir the level came a small excessively precocious arsenic radical already had their wealth invested successful the platform.

The Hong Kong Securities and Futures Commission (SFC) flagged Hounax arsenic a suspicious entity, listing it connected its “alert list” earlier successful the month. At the time, SFC stated that the speech falsely claimed concern connections with a fiscal instauration and a task superior firm.

Lawmakers slam SFC

Hong Kong lawmakers Johnny Ng Kit-chong and  Doreen Kong Yuk-foon criticized the SFC’s effort to pass the public.

According to the lawmakers, the fiscal watchdog should instrumentality a much proactive attack to identifying specified risks. They added that the fraudsters besides look to beryllium capitalizing connected the loopholes successful the existing regulations wrong the manufacture arsenic they “were not banned and existed successful a ineligible grey zone.”

Meanwhile, this probe follows an earlier enquiry into the JPEX scandal that emerged successful September. CryptoSlate reported that the constabulary received much than 2500 complaints, and astir $193 cardinal was allegedly mislaid to these scammers.

The station Hong Kong constabulary analyse $15.4 cardinal scam connected Hounax trading platform appeared archetypal connected CryptoSlate.