The New People’s Party chairwoman considers she let her guard to the scammers when she opened an attachment on an e-mail purportedly from MTR Corporation chairman Dr Raymond Chien Kuo-fung.

“He wrote in the e-mail, ‘Regina, I want help. Pressing. “I believed a friend needed help , and so I opened the attachment at the same time. I think that is when I fell into the snare.” Ip, who on Sunday disclosed she was setting the basis for a potential chief executive said Chien e-mailed her hours later, guiding her to change her password and saying his account had been hacked.

“Because I was active, that was an oversight on my part; I forgot to alter the password,” Ip said.

It’s understood the money was moved to an account in america out of Ip’s account in Switzerland.

“They subsequently invented a letter to instruct the bank to transfer US$65,000 outside.”

She stepped down amid mass demonstrations that derailed the strategy, and has emerged as one of the city’s most high profile and divisive politicians. There isn’t any idea of any political motivation for the offense.

Requested about the case of Ip Secretary for Security Lai Tung-kwok said authorities would spare no attempt to inquire regardless of who the victim was, although he’d no details.

It’s not clear whether Ip will get the cash reimbursed.

No arrests were made. Authorities figures revealed a 25 per cent year-on-year drop in instances calling for unauthorised access to computers this past year. But the amount stolen increased by 31 per cent to HK$1 billion.

Authorities inform the general public prevent using the exact same password for multiple accounts, change passwords frequently and to prevent downloading files from anonymous sources.