Fraudsters offer to pay big for second-hand clothing in latest ruse to scam Hong Kong residents out of money

Criminals create deceptive web pages advertising lucrative offers for doorstep collection of used clothing, police say

But to make booking, residents are first required to install malicious app that gathers personal data

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The criminals created webpages offering to pay residents for their second-hand clothing. Photo: Shutterstock

Published: 4:54pm, 24 Apr 2024Updated: 7:35pm, 24 Apr 2024

Online scammers are impersonating recyclers of second-hand clothing to steal personal data including bank account details from Hong Kong residents, prompting police to warn the public over the ruse.

Fraudsters were creating deceptive web pages advertising lucrative offers for doorstep collection of used clothing, the force said in a post on its CyberDefender Facebook page earlier this week. One of the web pages was offering as much as HK$500 (US$64) per piece of clothing.

“[Swindlers] make it sound tempting,” the force said.

Those who responded to the offers were asked to contact customer service through WhatsApp and were then lured into downloading a mobile app, called “Panda Pack” to arrange the collection.

According to police, victims were requested to set the “Panda Pack” as the default messaging application and grant permission to access their cameras, call logs, microphones, phone and messages.

Police have advised the public to use the force’s “Scameter” search engine or mobile app to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes. Photo: Shutterstock

Victims were also asked to go to a sham booking interface where they were required to provide their address and credit card information.