Some countries worldwide suffered bigger financial losses to cryptocurrency scams despite a massive bear market in 2022.
Losses from crypto scams in Hong Kong amounted to 1.7 billion Hong Kong dollars ($216.6 million) last year — surging 106% from a year before — according to local police.
The number of crypto-related scams reported in Hong Kong in 2022 equaled 2,336 cases, surging 67% from 1,397 cases recorded by police in 2021, the South China Morning Post (SCMP) reported.
Hong Kong scams involving crypto accounted for more than 50% of the 3.2 billion HK$ ($407 million) stolen from city residents in technology crimes, according to the official data from the Hong Kong police CyberDefender website. In the previous four years, online scammers bagged a similar amount of money or about 3 billion HK$ annually.
The were almost 23,000 reported cases of technology-related crimes in 2022.
According to SCMP…