Scam alert: fraudsters pose as HKMA to part Hongkongers from their money via deceptive WhatsApp messages

“The HKMA wishes to reiterate that it will not contact the public regarding personal financial matters, nor will it communicate with the public by forming groups on instant messaging applications.”

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The HKMA urged people who have fallen victim to such fraudulent acts to contact the police hotline at 2860 5012 for further investigation.

The warning comes just two months after the HKMA’s deputy CEO Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang and cantopop icon Wan Kwong teamed up to produce a video warning the public to beware of financial scam cases in the city.

The video, called Don’t indiscriminately click on links, showed how scammers trick individuals into divulging bank details and personal information.

Impostors use text messages and fake websites to urge citizens to provide account information through hyperlinks, enticing citizens with promotional offers and luring them into downloading counterfeit mobile applications that siphon off personal information and even passwords.

In its statement on Thursday, the HKMA said some of the fraudulent messages purportedly sent by the authority claimed that the supposed refund or unfreezing arrangement would be carried out through an overseas institution whose name is similar to that of an overseas bank’s representative office in Hong Kong. The HKMA did not name the institution.

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The HKMA statement said the public can check the names of authorised banks on its website (www.hkma.gov.hk) or by emailing the HKMA’s public inquiry service at [email protected].

The number of scam cases reported in Hong Kong last year rose by 40 per cent to 39,824, compared with 2022, and involved more than HK$9 billion (US$1.2 billion), nearly double the amount in the previous year, the Hong Kong police said in February.

Scams accounted for 44.1 per cent of all crimes reported last year, and around 70 per cent of these scams were internet-related, the police added.

Police recently arrested 1,121 people after a three-week crackdown on fraud syndicates accused of using internet and phone scams to cheat people out of about HK$2.2 billion. The force said that the suspects comprised 768 men and 353 women, aged 14 to 89, linked to 952 cases of deception and technology-based crimes, mainly involving employment, shopping and investment scams.

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Meanwhile, up to 30 per cent of users of Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System (FPS) have ignored scam warnings meant to protect them from scams, based on more than 500,000 warning messages sent in the past four months, police and financial authorities said. FPS users receive the warnings when they enter details of recipient accounts flagged by the police force’s “Scameter” database as high risk. The half a million alerts involved potential losses of HK$600 million.

ICBC Asia, the Hong Kong unit of Industrial and Commercial Bank of China, the country’s largest lender, plans to continue to use technology such as artificial intelligence to prevent and investigate fraud, Tony Mak Wing-yin, head of the financial crime compliance department at ICBC Asia, said in an interview with the Post in February.

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HKMA обманный сообщение обман WhatsApp Гонконгеров мошенник деньга общественность