Scammers posing as the HKMA are tricking people into paying fake fees
Scammers posing as the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) are tricking Hongkongers into paying fake fees, seemingly thumbing their noses at the regulator after it recently launched a campaign warning the public about phone scams and financial fraud.
The city’s de facto central bank yesterday said it had contacted the police after some members of the public reported receiving messages via WhatsApp that purported to be from the authority.
“These messages and documents demand money transfers to pay charges or taxes to recover frozen assets or payments made to fraudsters,” HKMA said. “The HKMA wishes to reiterate that it will not contact the public regarding personal financial matters, nor will it communicate with the public by forming groups on instant messaging applications.”
The authority received reports of more than five cases of bogus messages and documents recently, with some victims overseas. One of them suffered losses of over US$20,000, according to the HKMA. The authority urged victims to contact the police hotline at 2860 5012.
The warning comes just two months after HKMA deputy CEO Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang and Cantopop icon Wan Kwong teamed up to produce a video warning the public to beware of financial scam cases in the city.
The video showed how scammers trick individuals into divulging bank details and personal information. Impostors use text messages and fake websites to urge residents to provide account information, enticing them with promotional offers and luring them into downloading counterfeit mobile applications that siphon off personal information and passwords.
In its statement, the HKMA said some of the fraudulent messages purportedly sent by the authority claimed that the supposed refund or unfreezing arrangement would be carried out through an overseas institution whose name is similar to that of an overseas bank’s representative office in Hong Kong. The HKMA did not name the institution.
The HKMA statement said the public can check the names of authorised banks on its website (www.hkma.gov.hk) or by emailing publicenquiry@hkma.gov.hk.
The number of scam cases reported in Hong Kong last year rose by 40 per cent to 39,824, compared with 2022, and involved more than HK$9 billion, nearly double the amount in 2022, the police said in February.
Scams accounted for 44.1 per cent of all crimes reported last year, and around 70 per cent of these scams were internet-related, the police added.
Police recently arrested 1,121 people after a three-week crackdown on fraud syndicates accused of using internet and phone scams to cheat people out of about HK$2.2 billion. The force said the suspects comprised 768 men and 353 women, aged 14 to 89, linked to 952 cases of deception and technology-based crimes
Meanwhile, up to 30 per cent of users of the Faster Payment System (FPS) have ignored warnings meant to protect them from scams, with more than 500,000 warning messages sent in the past four months, police and financial authorities said. FPS users receive the warnings when they enter details of recipient accounts flagged by the force’s “Scameter” database as high risk. The half a million alerts involved potential losses of HK$600 million.
ICBC Asia, the Hong Kong unit of the Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s largest lender, would continue to use technology such as artificial intelligence to prevent and investigate fraud, Tony Mak Wing-yin, head of its financial crime compliance department, told the Post in February.