Police recorded over 24,000 fraud cases involving HK$4.34 bil. from January to July
發佈日期: 2025-09-12 21:07
TVB News
The Hong Kong Police Force recorded nearly 25,000 fraud cases during the first seven months of this year, involving in a total loss of 4.3 billion dollars.
Among the victims was a mainland Chinese master's student who was a scammed out of over 10 million dollars.
In the new academic year, the police's Anti-Deception Coordination Centre has dispatched officers to the University of Hong Kong to raise awareness. Students were encouraged to complete a fraud awareness survey, with some noting they frequently receive suspicious messages.
Miss Tung, a mainland student said she once received messages claiming that her parcel has arrived or that she needed to collect something, but she ignored the message because it felt like a scam.
According to police statistics, from January to July, 957 tertiary students fell victim to fraud. The majority were local students, while mainland students accounted for 35 percent of cases. However, the total loss among mainland students were significantly higher, exceeding 60 million dollars.
The largest single loss involved a mainland master's student.
In April, the victim received a call from fraudsters impersonating officials from the Immigration Department and police, who falsely accused him of involvement in financial crime. The victim was instructed to pay a "guarantee deposit" and made six transfers totaling almost 11 million dollars.
For local students, the case with the highest loss was an investment scam, where a master's student was defrauded of approximately 1.4 million dollars. Besides online shopping and impersonation scams, job-seeking fraud has also shown an increasing trend.
Theodora Lee, Superintendent of Police, Commercial Crime Bureau said, "When you purchase tickets from the second-hand platform, please check the trust level of sellers, and do not attempt to provide any personal information during the trading process."
The police have stated that they will collaborate with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority to strengthen efforts in urging banks to enhance their capabilities in intercepting and detecting suspicious transactions specifically for student bank accounts.
The overall number of fraud cases from January to July reached 24,644, a 1 percent year-on-year increase. However, the total loss decreased by 15 percent to 4.34 billion dollars.
