Phishing scams posing as Futu Securities led to $550k losses

Two victims fell prey to phishing messages which posed as those from a brokerage platform, resulting in losses totalling over 550,000 dollars.

Flagging the cases on their social media page, the police say the duo received the phishing messages via SMS and did not notice that the sender's number did not begin with a government verified # sign.

The messages alleged that the victim's US withholding tax and filing was about to expire, urging them to click a link, or be charged up to 30 percent of their tax deduction amount.

The two were then redirected by the link to a fake Futu Securities login page, where they were instructed to enter their Futu account number and password, leading to their accounts being hacked.

The pair only discovered they were defrauded after receiving notifications from Futu.