Police arrest 682 in 3-week anti-fraud crackdown involving $620mn

Police have arrested 682 people over the past three weeks, in connection with 580 fraud and tech-related crime cases.

Altogether, the cases involve a total of 620 million dollars.

Among the evidence seized are cash and luxury watches.

Those arrested are aged between 14 and 89.

One case involves a family-run online romance scam group also linked to a money-laundering syndicate.

They allegedly rented industrial units as scam centres and private residential flats as cash vaults.

Over the past 16 months, they operated through various dating apps using fake profile photos and posing as young local women to carry out the scams.

A total of 314 were defrauded with losses amounting to 44 million dollars -- averaging 150 thousand dollars per victim.

Police also revealed that in the first 11 months of last year, more than 39,000 fraud cases were recorded, accounting for 48.3 percent of all crime -- down 2.4 percentage points year-on-year.