Police released the latest figures as they pledged to strengthen cooperation with banks to block fraud.
The number of phone scam cases in Hong Kong dropped by nearly 50% in the first three months of this year from the last quarter of 2022, but police said it was too early to conclude if the new mandatory real-name registration of SIM cards could curb the crime.
According to Hong Kong police, the 597 phone fraud cases from January to March involved a total loss of HK$195.1mil , compared with HK$355.23mil in the 1,144 cases from October to December last year.The annual number of phone scams jumped to 2,831 last year from 1,140 in 2021 and 1,193 in 2020, police said. Victims lost about HK$1.08bil in total last year.
“Although phone scams overall this year have improved from that of the second half of last year, we cannot let our guard down,” he said, adding new arrivals from mainland China, students from other places, the elderly and professionals could all become victims. While the number of the former type of scams was falling, Wong said the latter surged from 84 cases in January to 233 in March.
Hau said he disclosed his personal information, including his bank account and identity card number, to the scammer while trying to prove he was innocent because he was in Hong Kong when the alleged crime was committed.
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