Hong Kong police chief says law enforcement, banks stepping up scam prevention, as phone deception cases drop in first quarter
- Police Commissioner Raymond Siu praises support from financial institutions day after high-level meeting with representatives from 28 banks
- City reported 597 phone scam cases in first quarter, down 48 per cent from 1,444 in final three months of last year
“Can banks have better intelligence sharing among themselves? Or can banks detect and trace the flow of illicit money in real time? As such, they could tell the police and we could act on that immediately,” he said, adding the institutions could respond to requests for information from law enforcement more quickly.
He said a series of measures rolled out last year in collaboration with mobile service providers had contributed to the 48 per cent fall in phone scams in the first quarter of this year. Cases in the fourth quarter of 2022 fell from 1,144 to 597 in the first three months of this year, with the total losses involved dropping from HK$355.2 million (US$45.3 million) to HK$195.1 million.
Those measures will continue. From next month, anti-fraud voice alerts or messages will be displayed for all calls with the “+852” prefix to warn residents about potential scammers.
While banks had been “very helpful” in fighting scams, such as contacting police upon receiving customers’ requests to withdraw large sums, Siu said they could “certainly” do more. He said he had brainstormed ideas with bank managers during the Friday meeting at the International Finance Centre.
Early scam detection by banks could be helpful as many victims often only made police reports after their accounts were emptied by criminals.
A 31-year-old Hong Kong lawyer lost nearly HK$5.7 million in January to a swindler impersonating a mainland Chinese police officer in a phone scam. In that case, the woman was instructed to open a new bank account and deposit money into it. She only realised she had been scammed after the account was emptied.
“I hope everyone can think about it rationally,” he said. “Yesterday when I went to the International Financial Centre for the meeting, they also put a lanyard on me which said ‘visitor’ on the card. What purpose does it serve? It’s for identification.”
“We should all still remember that during the mob violence of 2019, many protests ended up being hijacked, causing fires everywhere. This must never happen again,” he said.
Xia Baolong, the director of the State Council’s Hong Kong and Macau Affairs Office, told Hongkongers in a speech last Saturday that protests were not the only way to express views, warning that demands over livelihood issues could be politically manipulated, leading to confrontation within society.
