Police Arrest Five Over Compensated Dating Scam

The police said on Wednesday that they had crushed a syndicate that allegedly lured people in with the promise of arranging dates with models before threatening to expose them unless they handed over more money.

One victim lost nearly a million dollars, officers said.

Five men, aged between 22 and 57, were arrested on suspicion of obtaining property by deception and money laundering.

The police said they had investigated 11 cases of fraud related to “compensated dating”, where victims were duped out of a total of HK$2.8 million.

Officers say victims were told through online platforms to pay a deposit before they could meet the models for companionship or sex. The victims were then threatened, the police said, with having their personal information exposed unless they paid even more money – demands that were repeated several times.

The police didn’t explain why the victims feared having their personal information exposed.

Chief Inspector Tai Tze-bun said most of the victims were male, and one victim lost up to HK$993,000.

Officers said there had been a more than 12-percent rise in such cases over the past year, with victims cheated out of HK$32 million. They said 97 percent of victims were male.