I received another inquiry about possible fraud earlier, so I wanted to talk about how common fraud cases are in Hong Kong. To be honest, there are really endless fraud methods. If it is intentional fraud, it’s okay, because it is relatively easy to distinguish, and it is not difficult to call the police and file a case. Of course, successfully filing a case does not mean that the recovery is successful, but at least the police will follow up for you and recover the money. The cost is not big. Obvious deliberate fraud methods such as job traps or phone scams are commonplace. If you still fall into these traps after this year, I have nothing to say but sympathy. Another case on the edge of fraud and investment is what I want to discuss this time.

Hong Kong people are very accustomed to saving, and it is not too difficult for most people to save a hundred thousand or eighty thousand. But this amount is not enough to buy a house, it is a pity to put it into a fixed term, and I am unwilling to spend time learning advanced investment strategies. As a result, a strange "market demand" arises; I want to find a convenient place to store it and bring passive income. In order to meet this market demand, "investment" is a very useful word. It doesn’t matter what the subject of the investment is, as long as it’s hyped up and claimed to guarantee returns, it will always attract the public. In the early years, there was a Crypto vending machine for virtual currencies. In recent years, there are rental claw machines. Recently, I heard about investing in horses or investing in beauty companies. There are endless investment entities. The only thing the same is that they all talk as if the returns are guaranteed. From this person to that person. Handled by senior experts, it seems that as long as you put money in, you can easily become a winner in life.

I dare not say that all these investment plans are scams. After all, I believe that some of the original intentions are to actually generate returns and achieve "mutual prosperity." But is common prosperity so easy? If their investment plan has such potential, they can borrow money from banks themselves or find reputable fund companies to help raise funds, instead of falling into the bad strategy of raising funds from the public. By the way, crowdfunding for non-registered investment projects is illegal in Hong Kong. I have seen some so-called preferred shares in share subscription contracts that clearly do not have management rights for the target company. This kind of allotment cannot be made available to the public except friends. If you do not publicize it, you may be prosecuted.

Precisely because their original intention may not be to defraud, it is very difficult to pursue legal recourse when something goes wrong. After all, investment naturally has risks, and losses are legal and reasonable. However, most of the investors being lobbied have never carefully studied the risks or analyzed the investment documents. Do you think it's because those files are so thick that they hide small details? Sorry, I have seen many extremely high-risk investment documents that only have 3 or 4 pages, or even all written in Chinese. There is not a word in it that you can't understand. But it may be that such a simple document made investors lower their guard and ignore obvious risks. What do these investment options have in common? Why are the risks faced particularly high? The space is limited, so I will analyze it point by point in the next article.

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