Low success in cracking technology crime cases
Lack of co-operation and jurisdiction limitations are hindering investigations, police chief says
The police's success rate in cracking technology crime remains low amid a surge in the number of such cases in the city, the chief of the force says.
The rate of success in solving such crimes was just 15.4 per cent last year, when 3,015 cases were reported - up about 37 per cent from 2011, police commissioner Andy Tsang Wai-hung said.
"Looking back on the past 10 years, the sharp rise [in technology crimes] is very worrying," he said at an annual crime review yesterday. "The rate of increase in the past three years was well above 30 per cent. With such exponential growth, we are seeing major challenges ahead."
Tsang attributed the low detection rate to difficulties in investigations. Some cases were impossible to pursue as internet service providers refused to disclose suspicious web addresses, while officers faced jurisdiction limitations in cases where foreign countries were involved, he said.
Commercial e-mail scams accounted for 430 cases last year, up about 177 per cent from the year before. Money lost in these scams amounted to nearly HK$180 million, compared with HK$49 million in 2011.
Tsang pointed to the growing internet savvy of the population and the prevalence of smartphones in Hong Kong as factors behind the surge in technology crime cases.