Hong Kong woman duped by fake K-pop trainee
SingTao · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago6 MIN
Summary
TVB programme Scoop (東張西望) reported on August 16 a suspected romance scam involving a Hong Kong woman identified as Ms Lam and a man surnamed Lai who claimed he had once had a chance to debut in the K-pop group NCT. Ms Lam said she first received a direct message from Lai on Instagram in September last year, and he presented himself as a Korean trainee and model for a luxury brand company. Their relationship escalated quickly, and within about a month they became a couple and moved in together, before Lai brought her to what he described as his Hong Kong office, which turned out to be a multi-level marketing company selling supplements, beauty products and hair-restoration treatments. Ms Lam said she eventually paid more than HK$67,000 into the scheme, while Lai earned more than HK$14,000 in commission, and later discovered allegations that his trainee identity and luxury-fashion images were false
Key Points
- To make his story believable, Lai regularly wore designer accessories and jackets, saying they were gifts from sponsors, and mixed Korean phrases into chats with Ms Lam
- He told Ms Lam he would only dance boy-band routines in front of her, but avoided discussing his supposed Korean training, calling it internal information
- Despite a previous bad experience with multi-level marketing, Ms Lam said she paid HK$5,000 to join after Lai promised they could build a better future together
- She was later persuaded to upgrade her membership, with Lai promising to cover part of the cost, but she ended up paying more than HK$67,000 in total
- After she posted online about the breakup, one of Lai's former girlfriends contacted her, alleging he had no Korean visa stamps and had reused the same trainee story to lure women into sales schemes
Why It Matters
The case shows how online romance can be used to lower victims' guard before money is extracted through side schemes that may look like business opportunities rather than direct fraud. For Hong Kong audiences, it is also a reminder that glamorous social-media images, celebrity-adjacent claims and fast-moving cohabitation can all be part of a carefully staged deception