Hong Kong gang posing as part-time sex workers rob three men after luring them to meet-up spots
- Victims thought they were meeting a girl or woman offering ‘compensated dating’
- In one case, man was robbed of HK$10,000 along with a mobile phone at playground in Sham Shui Po
A gang of robbers posing as part-time sex workers are luring men on social media for meet-ups to steal from them, Hong Kong police have warned.
At least three men fell victim to this tactic after being tricked into meeting girls for “compensated dating” at places such as a guest house and a playground in Kowloon West over the past four weeks.
Police said on Monday that two of the cases happened in Mong Kok and Sham Shui Po over a span of four hours last week.
Compensated dating is a disguised form of prostitution in which male clients pay for companionship and often sex. The women usually claim they are clerical workers or students working as part-time sex workers.
At about 9.30pm last Tuesday, a 32-year-old man was lured to a Mong Kok guest house on Prince Edward Road West for sex with his part-time “lover” he met online.
The victim put up a struggle and managed to escape
After he failed to find the woman there, he left but was intercepted by two men on a staircase in a robbery attempt. Police said one of the suspects was carrying a hammer.
“The victim put up a struggle and managed to escape,” a police source said. No cash or valuables were taken from the man.
Four hours later, another man, 37, was robbed of HK$10,000 (US$1,300) along with a mobile phone at Maple Street Playground in Sham Shui Po where he had arranged to meet another girl contacted by social media.
He arrived at 1am at the playground and waited for half an hour, and was about to leave when he was also attacked by two men, one wielding a hammer.
“He was pushed onto the floor near a public toilet and hit on the leg with the hammer before he was robbed of his wallet containing HK$10,000, along with a mobile phone,” the source said.
Police said the victim was treated at the scene and did not need to go to hospital.
Compensated dating ring that earned HK$20 million in Hong Kong over last five years busted
In a similar case, a man was robbed near Yau Tsim District Police Headquarters earlier this month.
Another police source said it was possible there were other victims who did not report their cases. “They may have felt ashamed to reveal they were robbed while seeking sex services,” he said.
The source added that he believed the same gang was behind the three robberies, and descriptions of the attackers as men in their 20s matched.
As none of the so-called compensated dating girls showed up in the three cases, the source said he did not rule out the possibility that all members in the gang were men. “They may have searched for photos of attractive women on the internet and used them to make fake profiles on dating apps to find targets,” he said.
Police have noticed several cases of such nature recently, reminding the public to be “cautious when making new friends on social media”.
