Hong Kong police updates Fun Coffee scam numbers as more victims report losses

The police in Hong Kong have conceded that losses from the collapse of the Fun Coffee crypto scheme may have been higher than initially feared. 

The updated figure of HK$104 million (about $13 million) has begun to appear in official statements and local reports one day after Hong Kong police coordinated raids with authorities in neighboring cities, including Macao.

So far, about HK$147,000 in cash, 16 bank cards, six phones and about HK$610,000 in suspected proceeds have been seized across raids in Kowloon Bay, Tsim Sha Tsui, Mong Kok and Tsuen Wan.

More Fun Coffee scam victims have come forward 

As of August 4, Hong Kong police counted losses near HK$94 million across 225 complaints. By late Wednesday local time, 30 new reports had pushed losses to 255, and the Hong Kong dollar figure had jumped to HK$104 million. 

Macao’s Judiciary Police has been working in tandem on the investigation as well, with reports from the city putting the current total at 264 claims and projected losses above HK$107.5 million (about $13.71 million).

Six people, one man and five women, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud by the Hong Kong police between August 1 and 3. Macao, on the other hand, picked up two women on aggravated fraud charges. 

According to local reports, the group detained in Hong Kong has been released on bail as of Wednesday, August 5. Ironically, the group’s ages ranged from 51 to 64, an atypical demographic to be implicated in a cryptocurrency scam. 

The victim age range is much wider, touching 32- and 83-year-olds alike. Retirees also lost savings to the scheme. 

Was Fun Coffee a Ponzi scheme? 

Investigators have already concluded that Fun Coffee paid earlier investors with cash inflows from newer ones, the classic structure of a Ponzi scheme. That scheme held together until the app stopped working and withdrawal processing halted on July 20, as reported by Cryptopolitan.

Fun Coffee promoted itself as a Vietnam-based coffee business, with $1 billion in assets, over 5,000 staff members and a headquarters office on Phu Quoc island. It paired jargon about coffee-gene technology and brewing machine research with a crypto investment app.

The carrot it danged to investors was annual returns ranging from 197% to 278%, depending on whether they joined its “start-up,” “growth,” or “voyage” investment tier. Referral bonuses and daily check-in rewards were also added to encourage more commitment from victims.

Total losses may be way more than official reports 

The loss estimates being put out by the authorities in Macao and Hong Kong are just a fraction of the unofficial numbers making the rounds. Legislator Johnny Ng Kit-chong, who accompanied a group of victims after claiming to have received roughly 50 in-person appeals in just one week, warned that more than 1,000 people were likely affected in the Fun Coffee collapse. 

Ng is also arguing that the government can help victims’ hope of recovering their losses by giving agencies the power to freeze platforms’ crypto assets and funds when they are suspected of fraud. 

Victims ignored warnings before Fun Coffee collapsed

The collapse arrived after regulators had already sounded the alarm. Hong Kong’s Securities and Futures Commission placed the “Fun Coffee GCM Project” on its list of suspicious investment products on July 13, cautioning that participants risked losing their entire principal. 

Earlier, in May 2026, Vietnamese state television reported that the country’s Ministry of Public Security saw signs of a Ponzi scheme, according to The Standard and Cryptopolitan’s earlier coverage.

Police said the case fits a broader pattern. In 2025, about one-third of the city’s 5,135 online investment fraud cases involved virtual assets, and online investment scams cost victims more than HK$3.58 billion, up 58.4% year on year and the highest of any fraud type. 

Investigators are still examining seized devices and contacting other victims, and said they will keep working with Macao and overseas agencies to trace the money.

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