Four Chinese nationals charged over $100 million US-based scam

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Four Chinese nationals charged over $100 million US-based scam

The Australian police charged four Chinese nationals on Friday December 9 over an online investment scam based mostly in the United States, which authorities said caused losses of more than $100 million across the world.

The sophisticated scam involved the manipulation of legitimate electronic trading platforms licensed to foreign exchange brokers, who provided the software to their clients, the Australian Federal Police AFP said.

The United States Secret Service notified authorities in August of the Australian links to the predominantly US-based scam. The accused were residents of Sydney but most of the victims were in the United States.

The organised crime syndicate used a mix of social engineering techniques, including messaging platforms and dating and job websites, to gain victims' trust before mentioning investment opportunities.

The victims were directed to both fraudulent and legitimate investment applications that dealt in foreign exchange and cryptocurrencies, which were manipulated to show a false positive return on investments.

AFP detective Sergeant Salam Zreika said the case highlighted the need to refrain from investing in foreign exchange, Cryptocurrency, or speculative investments with people you've only ever encountered in the online environment. The four arrested men registered Australian business accounts to launder the proceeds, and police said that they had created Australian business accounts to make their scams look genuine.