5th August 2026 – (Hong Kong) Fun Coffee, sold as a Vietnam-rooted coffee venture that entered Hong Kong in late 2025, has been exposed as a cryptocurrency investment scam after Hong Kong police and Macao’s Judiciary Police arrested several people on Tuesday, 4th August 2026, for suspected fraud.
Some 225 cases have been logged, with about HK$97 million involved across Hong Kong and Macao. The scheme collapsed at the end of July when victims could not withdraw funds.
From July 2025, friends recruited people to film exercise or dance clips for Fun Coffee at HK$400 a shoot, then to lead teams of eight to 12 for funding of HK$2,500 to HK$3,000 and a net of about HK$1,500 to HK$2,000 after costs, before the app and high-return daily tasks.
Anonymised victim A built a filming network of about 700 and used the app from October 2025. She said more than 120 in her line appeared to profit, but more than 50 were victims, with over HK$14 million involved. Uplines took small US-dollar crypto cuts when downlines invested. Victim B, her downline, started in October 2025, attended a Singapore “exchange” in April, and invested more than HK$600,000 in a short-term task claiming over HK$1.4 million profit in seven months, or about 400 per cent a year; her team of about 110 had about HK$2.5 million involved. Victim C began in December 2025, put in more than HK$600,000, had over 100 downlines and about HK$7 million involved.
A said her upline called the tasks member benefits from AI robots, not investments. B said dinners and marathons eased her doubts. Legislative Council member Johnny Ng told a press conference on Wednesday, 5th August 2026, that his team had contacted about 50 victims, from people in their 30s to retirees. He said Fun Coffee used social and sports events to build trust before high-interest task deposits and pyramid-style pressure, and urged police to freeze related cryptocurrency accounts while warning most money may not be recovered.
