Phone scams robbing old folk of millions, police say
One of the city's biggest telephone fraud gangs has been broken up - but police warn the scams continue and that gangs' tactics and technology are evolving.
Two Hongkongers arrested in Shenzhen confessed last week to being masterminds of a gang which is accused of cheating people in Hong Kong of more than HK$3 million since early this year. The men will appear in court next month.
Despite an extensive public education campaign, criminals cheat and extort more than HK$20 million a year, mostly from the city's elderly.
The deception begins with a telephone call - always between 9am and 5pm when the rest of the family is at work - from one of the scammers, who will say: 'Guess who?'
When the victim answers with a family member's name, the caller usually says his life is in danger and that a significant amount of money must be transferred or he will be killed or injured. By the time the victim verifies that the family member is safe and well, tens of thousands of dollars have been transferred.
In one case in July, a 70-year-old woman on Hong Kong Island deposited HK$1.2 million into an account over a week because she could not get in touch with the family member.
The Shenzhen police operation involved cross-border co-operation with Hong Kong police.
The telephone scams first emerged as an organised and highly lucrative form of deception in Taiwan, but did not register on the radar in Hong Kong until 2006, police say.
About 1,500 cases a year are reported to police. Sixty per cent of the victims are over 60.
Police say the syndicates use the bank accounts of drug or gambling addicts as a conduit for the money.
Chief Inspector David Williams, who is in charge of monitoring the crime in Hong Kong, said telephone deception was particularly cruel because it preyed on the elderly and exploited Chinese cultural norms, such as the importance of family.
'The family unit is so close and so important in Chinese culture. The criminals take advantage of this,' Williams said. 'We've had cases where the victim would tell us they had heard the warnings but they were just so worried.'
After police began charging the bank account holders with money laundering, the criminals began coming across the border to collect payments themselves, Williams said.
This has led to an increase in arrests, with 17 Taiwanese and four mainlanders held since last month.
Syndicates were increasingly using internet phone software to make calls, Williams said. One computer seized in a raid had been used to make more than 5,000 calls a month.
Williams said police receive about 100 reports of deception calls each month. 'They aren't often successful, but when they are, that's someone's life savings gone,' he said.
