Fraudsters posing as mainland Chinese officials duped Hong Kong residents out of HK$726 million (US$93 million) in phone scams in the first 11 months of 2021, the highest losses in a single year for such cases since 2015. The amount was also 35 per cent more than the HK$539 million victims reported losing to phone scammers over the same period last year. Mainland students who arrived in the city for the new academic term were one group targeted by fraudsters, who scared them with claims they had broken the law across the border before extracting their personal information. Between September and November, 101 postsecondary mainland students were scammed out of nearly HK$36 million. In the biggest case, a student reported losing HK$2.4 million. Hong Kong TV chef among 10 arrested over HK$176 million stock market con Meanwhile, in a new wave of coronavirus pandemic-related scams, fraudsters impersonating health officials tricked local victims into revealing their personal information by saying they could not receive their third vaccine jab because of discrepancies in their particulars recorded when they had their first two doses. Police attributed the sharp rise in the amount stolen this year to a single case reported in March, in which a wealthy 90-year-old woman reported being conned of HK$250 million between August 2020 and January this year by swindlers who told her that her identity had been used in a serious criminal case on the mainland. Overall, the number of victims in cases involving fake officials fell by almost a fifth, to 530, between January and November this year, down from 637 in the same period last year. A police source said investigations indicated that most of the money was transferred to bank accounts on the mainland after being laundered through layers of accounts in the city, although some also went to countries such as the Philippines and Spain. He said gangs of scammers were believed to be operating from mainland China and various Asian countries in a well-structured operation with a clear division of labour. “Some of them work as callers to find targets, using various scripts to trick their victims, while others are focused on doing money transfers,” he said. Police had noticed the rise in mainland students being tricked over the past three months. Callers accused the students of breaking the law on the mainland, then instructed the victims to reveal personal details, including online banking passwords, “for investigations”. In some cases, the victims were directed to an “official website” where they found an “arrest warrant” bearing their personal information. They realised they were conned only when they found their bank accounts had been cleaned out. 16 held over credit card fraud in joint raids by Hong Kong, Macau police Explaining why newly arrived mainland students were vulnerable, Chief Inspector Mok Tsz-wai of the Kowloon East regional crime unit – a police team dedicated to investigating phone scams – said the surge of cases coincided with the start of the new academic year. “Everything here is unfamiliar to these newcomers,” he said. “Their parents and close friends are not in the city. If something happens unexpectedly, they don’t know who they can turn to.” He urged mainland students in Hong Kong to be alert to the fraudsters’ tactics and expressed hope their parents would keep in touch with them regularly. Fraudsters pretending to be officials have been making off with bigger amounts from their victims in Hong Kong in recent years. The total losses reported went up from HK$46 million in 2018 to HK$127 million in 2019, and then to HK$549 million last year. Scammers typically called their victims and told them there were problems with a parcel they posted, or that their mobile phone service was about to be suspended. The calls were then transferred to someone claiming to be a mainland law enforcer, who would scare the victims by saying their identities or bank accounts were involved in a criminal case across the border. The victims were then told they could prove their willingness to cooperate by transferring money to a designated bank account or by revealing their online banking details for the alleged investigation. Hong Kong’s vaccination drive sparked the recent wave of scams in which victims were tricked after being told of discrepancies in their personal particulars. Here, too, victims were transferred to a fraudster impersonating a mainland law enforcement officer, who then asked for their personal information. The ruse prompted the force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre to issue a scam alert last month. The police reminded the public that callers representing the Department of Health would identify themselves properly and would not ask for any sensitive personal information such as bank account details or passwords. Anyone in doubt can call the Anti-Scam Helpline at 18222 for help.