Biggest case involved woman who lost HK $ 119,000 in 24 hours after being conned into buying more than 50 points cards for online games . A woman who lost HK $ 119,000 in 24 hours was among almost 250 people duped out Attack.Phishing of about HK $ 1.9 million ( US $ 242,000 ) in a WhatsApp scam Attack.Phishing in Hong Kong this year , police said on Wednesday . According to police , swindlers pretended to be Attack.Phishing friends of WhatsApp users and invented different excuses to lure Attack.Phishing them into revealing their account verification codes . The con men then accessed the accounts with the codes and , posing as Attack.Phishing the users , sent Attack.Phishing text messages to deceive Attack.Phishing the account holders ’ contacts . Mohammed said genuine account holders were unable to use WhatsApp at least 12 hours after their accounts were hijacked . “ All the scam victims were asked to buy MyCard points cards for online games , ” he said . MyCard is a digital payment platform . Users can buy credit to spend on the platform from convenience stores across the city , Mohammed said . After getting passwords for the cards , scammers sold them online . Police said the age range of the victims was between 17 and 72 and losses went from a few hundred dollars to thousands . No arrests had been made . The Post reported in February that officers believed fraudsters from Taiwan were behind the scam because the points cards they requested were used for the Taiwanese versions of online games . Police advised residents to safeguard their personal data and verify the identity of those who contact them . If in doubt , people should call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 18222 . In the first three months of this year , there were 270 reports of deception through instant messaging platforms , accounting for HK $ 2.6 million in losses . That exceeds the figure for the whole of last year , when there were 266 cases , in which scammers bagged HK $ 2.1 million .