Cybercrimes and scams will be two big challenges for Hong Kong police, outgoing veteran says
Assistant Commissioner Chung Siu-yeung looks back on his 31-year service with the force
Cybercrimes and deception would be major challenges faced by Hong Kong’s police in the next decade, an outgoing veteran crime buster has said amid increasing cases of both types of offences.
Over the past decade, reports of technology crimes have jumped more than eightfold while occurrences of deception climbed 50 per cent. According to authorities, such cases were hard to detect and solve.
Last week, Assistant Commissioner Chung Siu-yeung, who oversees crime investigations, took stock of the city’s crime trends over the past three decades ahead of his retirement next week after 31 years of service.
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He said the battlefield for police had widened as more culprits moved from entity crimes, such as robbery and burglary, to the virtual world in line with technological development.
Since the force started recording technology crime figures in 2005, reported cases skyrocketed from 653 to 5,939 within 11 years, with annual financial losses reaching HK$2.3 billion last year.
Meanwhile cheating cases – including phone scams, street swindles, online romance scams and email scams – rose from 4,758 in 2006 to 7,260 in 2016, compared with 1,489 cases in 1986 and 3,177 in 1996.
“When it comes to cybercrimes, we not only monitor local perpetrators but culprits from all over the world,” said Chung, who once served in the commercial crime bureau, eventually becoming its head.
“Anyone with a computer and good skills can hack devices in Hong Kong. Prevention is very important, otherwise our city will be vulnerable to all online criminals globally. This is a very big challenge.”
