“Although cases using such tactics only take up about 35 per cent of total phone scam cases, the losses tend to be much greater,” stated Senior Inspector Lam Pui-hang of the power’s logic collecting and rip-off reaction workforce.
He stated the collection of mainland scholars in Hong Kong falling sufferer to such scams had additionally larger from 29 within the first quarter ultimate 12 months to 39 within the unedited length.
One 18-year-old sufferer, who simplest known herself as “Chen” was once one of the vital contemporary instances.
The college pupil stated scammers had first approached her claiming to be officials from the immigration government. She stated they claimed her telephone quantity have been occupied with “unscrupulous activities on the mainland” that “violated Hong Kong laws”, and that she have been “blacklisted”.
“I kept telling them I had done no such thing, but they kept saying they had evidence … I believed them, and was very emotionally traumatised and upset,” she stated.
The scammers feigned condolense, telling her to pay immense sums of cash to “expedite” her case, she stated.
She was once additionally advised to not inform somebody they had been doing her a “secret favour”, as many crowd, together with warehouse workforce, had been conscious about her case.
Scammers suggested her to obtain an app, which police stated was once in truth a trojan virus that allowed the perpetrators to hack into her telephone, granting them get right of entry to to her warehouse main points.
“They managed to transfer large amounts of money away from my bank account, and I had absolutely no idea,” she stated.
The swindlers moved HK$800,000 out of her account in 4 transactions between April 23 and 26.
The sufferer’s warehouse noticed the suspicious task and notified police, managing to halt some other HK$200,000 sooner than it was once stolen.
Senior Inspector Lam stated police would proceed to paintings with colleges and pupil teams to boost consciousness amongst mainlanders and their folks about such scams, and the place they might search assistance.
He stated the fastest and most efficient first step was once to name the power’s 18222 “anti-scam helpline”.
Police additionally warned the society to pay attention to a unutilized form of telephone rip-off by which swindlers would impersonate workforce from buying groceries web pages or video platforms, claiming their sufferers had develop into VIPs and that they had to get started paying matching club charges.
If the sufferers sought after to decide out, they might want to pay extra money for “handling fees”, in a different way their accounts would stay frozen.
