At least a dozen HSBC customers have lost $660,000 to 'phishing' expeditions
Police and bank officials have admitted for the first time that Hong Kong people have fallen victim to crime syndicates using a cyber scam to empty their bank accounts.
The criminals are believed to have masterminded a cyber attack on HSBC in which at least a dozen local victims were swindled out of $660,000.
Yesterday, HSBC said it would consider footing the bill for customers whose accounts were emptied after they were duped into providing user names, passwords and personal details to a bogus website.
The scams are mainly operated by hi-tech criminal syndicates based in eastern Europe.
Overseas experts yesterday told the South China Morning Post the scams, known as phishing, were a huge problem for banks, costing millions of dollars in payouts every week. On average, 80 new phishing sites appear every day, using bogus e-mails to trick people into divulging confidential information.