An 82-year-old woman in Hong Kong has lost HK$4.2 million (US$539,800) after being duped by scammers with a new phishing tactic involving a streaming subscription that has also been used against postgraduate students, police have said.

The force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre revealed on Thursday that it had received over 35 inquiries on the scams involving messages allegedly sent by streaming or television companies, including Netflix, Now TV and HOY TV, that targeted a wide demographic of victims, from master’s degree students to the elderly.

The force added that the reported losses in the scams ranged from HK$17,000 to as high as HK$4.2 million, with the largest individual loss reported by an 82-year-old retiree.

A source familiar with the matter said the retiree received an unsolicited text message claiming she had subscribed to a Netflix monthly plan but had yet to pay her bill.

Since the victim did not subscribe to such a service, she grew anxious and rang the phone number provided in the message.

The force said the retiree requested for her “service” to be cancelled, but the scammer convinced her instead to transfer money to a designated account.