More than a million failed SIM cards deactivated

Authorities deactivated more than 1 million SIM cards in the past year after their owners failed to complete real-name registration, an enforcement action labelled as effective in reducing scams.

The Commerce and Economic Development Bureau told lawmakers yesterday that telecoms companies cancelled about 1.18 million SIM cards in the 12 months to the end of January as the users had failed to comply with the regulation.

An additional 1.33 million cards were rejected for registration due to incomplete applications, it added.

The regulation took effect in September 2021, mandating all SIM card users in Hong Kong register their personal information such as their name, date of birth and identity card number before February 2023.

Up to 10 cards can be registered under a single name.

In 2021, Sonny Au Chi-kwong, the undersecretary for security at the time, was asked whether the 2019 anti-government protests and the national security law were driving the change. He said the policy was designed to tackle the increasing prevalence of organised crime and deception.

Citing police data, the bureau said yesterday that the new measure had been effective in cutting down on the number of scams.

“Since the introduction of the above-mentioned measures, the average number of telephone fraud cases in the fourth quarter of 2023 has dropped by 38.1 per cent when compared to the same period in 2022, reflecting the positive effect of these measures in combating telephone frauds,” it said.

Authorities said the real-name registration system had helped to plug the loophole of anonymous activities conducted through prepaid SIM cards, and assisted law enforcement agencies in investigating and preventing crimes using such cards, including telephone fraud.

Last year, police arrested individuals suspected of using false personal information to register a large number of prepaid phone cards, based on a report from telecoms companies. About 60,000 prepaid SIM cards were involved in the cases.

As of the end of this February, the real-name registration of about 14 million SIM cards has been completed.

According to statistics provided by telecoms providers, more than 90 per cent of registered SIM cards belonged to personal users, while less than 10 per cent were for corporate users.

The bureau also reminded the public to use their own information when registering the cards and not to purchase or sell cards from unknown sources on the market.