Hong Kong police arrest 122 people linked to loss of HK$91.46 million in scams

“One-third of the suspects were unemployed, while others included foreign domestic helpers, drivers, waiters and housewives,” Shum said.

He said the 122 suspects, aged 19 to 80, were detained on suspicion of money laundering, conspiracy to defraud and obtaining property by deception in a 25-day citywide operation code-named “Breakmark”, which wrapped up on Wednesday.

Inspector Ng Chak-kui of the Wong Tai Sin criminal investigation unit said some of the suspects had admitted to loaning out or selling their bank accounts to fraud syndicates.

“Police emphasise that residents should never lend, rent or sell their bank accounts to others for handling funds of unknown origin,” Ng said.

“These acts absolutely have no grey area [in the rules], and are no different from directly benefiting from criminal activities, as it still constitutes the offence of money laundering.”

In Hong Kong, money laundering is punishable by up to 14 years in jail and a HK$5 million fine.

According to the force, the 256 victims were conned out of HK$91.46 million in 80 cases that included online investment scams, employment fraud, e-shopping swindles, internet love scams and telephone deception.

In one of the cases, eight victims were swindled out of HK$12.2 million after being coaxed into investing in mainland Chinese stocks with the promise of high returns.

Hong Kong police log 15 per cent surge in scams in January

Shum said nearly 30 per cent of the 256 people fell victim to e-shopping fraud after being tricked into buying hotel packages and goods that they never received.

He said one of the shopping scams involved more than 20 online consumers who were tricked into transferring HK$1.3 million into a designated bank account to buy trendy figurines or models at prices lower than the market value.

Police have urged consumers to only patronise reputable online sellers and ensure web pages are genuine.

Ng said online shoppers should exercise caution when reviewing the content and prices of sales advertisements.

“If an advertisement appears exaggerated, offers unrealistically low prices or lacks detailed sales terms, it may be a warning signal,” he said.

Police handled 34,112 reports of online technology crime last year, a 49 per cent rise from 22,797 cases logged in 2022. The amount lost rose by 71 per cent to HK$5.49 billion in 2023 from HK$3.21 billion the year before.

Police advised the public to use the force’s “Scameter” search engine, accessible through the CyberDefender website, to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.

The search engine has information to help users identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts, mobile phone numbers and IP addresses.