Con Artist Dupes Man Out of Nearly $15,000 and Rare Bottle of Whisky Worth $9,500

A worker from Tin Hau, Hong Kong, was scammed out of $15,000 and a bottle of rare Japanese whisky last week, per The Drinks Business.

A 41-year-old man attempted to sell a bottle of Karuizawa 1983 bottle on Singaporean marketplace Carousell, only to meet a con artist who had posed as a buyer. After reaching a deal of HK$75,000 (US$9,555) for the whisky, the swindler told the seller that a deposit of the same amount had been made to his bank account. When meeting up with the “buyer” to hand over the whisky, another transaction was arranged at Admiralty MTR station, where the victim was scammed out of both money and booze.

The Hong Kong police reported that after the transaction, the con artist said that a cheque for HK$115,000 (US$14,659)  had been deposited into his account by mistake. He then asked the victim to transfer the money to a specific bank account.

After the victim adhered to the scammer’s request and transferred the money into the designated bank account through two transactions, he realized he had been scammed when the cheques bounced.

Police reported that the scammer was between 20 and 30 years old. The case has been categorized as “obtaining property by deception,” an offense punishable by up to 10 years in jail.

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