Scammers impersonate Hong Kong retail chain Mannings, cheat public with fake messages
- Police received 15 reports in past week of scams in which victims fall for ‘expiring points’ ruse, give credit card details on fake websites
Hong Kong police have issued a scam alert after fraudsters sent phishing messages under the guise of a promotion by retail chain Mannings to trick residents into clicking on a hyperlink for a bogus website.
The force said the scammers’ messages claimed that reward points collected by victims would “expire today” and duped them into using the sham website to buy electronic products for an “extremely low price” to spend the fake points.
They then obtained credit card details that victims entered on the website, police said in a post on their CyberDefender Facebook page on Monday.
“In the past week, police have received 15 reports of these phishing scams, resulting in losses of up to HK$270,000 [US$34,600].”
The force added that the “expiring points” ruse was a common tactic by fraudsters, and reminded the public not to click on hyperlinks from unknown sources.
“Carefully evaluate if a website is legitimate before entering personal or financial information,” police said.