Price of online scams too high for city to pay
- Scandals involving virtual trading platforms, bogus sales and other fraudulent methods do nothing for Hong Kong’s reputation
Out with the old and in with the new is a saying often heard as a new year approaches. As memories of the pandemic fade, Hong Kong seems destined to carry cybercrime into 2024 as its latest scourge. In the most recent case, police have launched an investigation into the virtual asset exchange platform Hounax. About 150 people claim to have lost nearly HK$153 million to an operation the Securities and Futures Commission had listed as a suspicious virtual asset trading business at the start of this month.
Scammers “impersonated investment experts” to dupe victims to put their money into virtual currencies through the platform “with promises of high returns”, Chan Wai-kei, superintendent of the force’s commercial crime bureau, said. Investigators said they had not found any links between Hounax and the JPEX cryptocurrency exchange scandal, which affected more than 2,500 people and involved more than HK$1.5 billion in losses.
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The Travel Industry Council has also asked police for help after a surge in bogus social media accounts posing as Hong Kong travel agencies offering cheap deals. Industry officials said four or five agencies received about 60 inquiries from residents about Facebook adverts this month, with one customer losing HK$40,000. And only last week, criminals made off with at least HK$1.36 million from people trying to buy food online. Some were conned by fake adverts for illegal dog meat.
The latest official figures show fraudsters swindled 2,506 residents out of HK$705 million in the first nine months of the year, despite the efforts of a new police unit and interventions by banks, retailers and telecoms operators.
Hong Kong’s security chief Chris Tang Ping-keung told lawmakers last week that about nine people were duped over the phone every day, with a surge in cases where fraudsters pretend to be a relative in distress needing money.
Security experts have repeatedly called for public vigilance. Until laws and the enforcement of them can catch up with cyber criminals and their like, the city’s dream of becoming an advanced cryptocurrency and e-commerce hub will be just that.
