May 14, 2024
HONG KONG – Police in Hong Kong said on Monday that losses from phone scams in the first quarter of 2024 increased over threefold compared with last year, reaching HK$790 million ($101.1 million), with more Chinese mainland students among the victims.
Hong Kong logged 474 phone scams from January through March, a 20 percent decrease compared with the same period in 2023, police said at a news conference. However, losses from phone fraud cases soared to HK$790 million, with over 96 percent of the scams involving fake officials.
The biggest fraud case police officers solved in the first quarter was one in January in which a 70-year-old woman transferred HK$265 million to fraudsters impersonating government officials.
Police eventually intercepted about HK$1.57 million and arrested three people on suspicion of fraud.
Police said the victims of 23 scams recorded in April are mainland students, surpassing the monthly average of 13 cases involving mainland students in the first quarter.
Lam Pui-hang, senior inspector of the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre, said scammers often exploit victims’ psychological vulnerabilities by telling students that they are being monitored and will be arrested if they tell others about the scams.
Lam explained that mainland students may not be familiar with Hong Kong laws, and the alien environment they are in makes them prone to phone scams.
To protect mainland students against fraud scams, police and universities have worked together in distributing information on the topic since 2023, police said.
Lam also said that police have discovered a new phone scam, in which scammers pretend to be customer service personnel from video platforms, claiming that victims have subscribed to VIP services and that they need to pay related membership fees.
If people want to cancel “the VIP services”, the swindlers say they need to pay an administration fee.
Regardless of whichever option the victims choose, the fraudsters claim that their bank accounts have been frozen and ask them to transfer money to a designated account, where traps await, police said.