Hong Kong police warn over trend of scammers posing as officers and IT staff

Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee said on Thursday residents risked losing their life savings to scams in some cases, urging them to use the force’s anti-scam mobile app and hotline if they had any doubts or received suspicious messages.

“The reason we are putting in so much effort to organise an anti-scam raffle, rolling out another round after the first, is because we hope everyone can fully utilise these tools,” Siu said during a prize ceremony for raffle winners.

“Sparing a minute or two could prevent you from losing your lifelong, hard-earned savings to despicable scammers.”

The police chief was referring to the force’s anti-deception hotline and its Scameter app that flags suspicious websites, phone numbers and bank accounts.

Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said the app had been downloaded an additional 170,000 times since the raffle was introduced at the end of last month.