A 67-year-old man who advertised a fish tank for HK$500 lost more than HK$1 million after a supposed buyer sent him a fake bank link, Hong Kong police said.
The buyer contacted the man privately and claimed the seller had to complete an account verification before receiving payment. The link took him to a counterfeit online-banking login page, where he entered his bank details and login password.
The page then displayed a message saying the verification had succeeded. The man believed the payment process was complete, but his account information had been passed to the fraudster, police said.
He later spotted two suspicious online-banking transfers and discovered that more than HK$1 million had been moved from his account. The case was included in a warning posted through the CyberDefender anti-scam account.
Police said they had received more than 100 payment-link scam reports over the preceding week, involving total losses of more than HK$14 million. They advised people not to click links from unknown sources, enter banking information on unfamiliar websites or trust account-verification requests during buy-and-sell transactions.