New Hong Kong scams using bogus online customer service staff cheat people out of HK$190 million in less than 5 months
- Police say scam technique an ‘increasing trend’, with HK$4.16 million the biggest single loss logged
- Officers warn of ‘new defrauding trick’ and appeal to people to be on alert and contact banks or stores if they have any doubts
Fraudsters posing as customer support staff at online service platforms have swindled Hongkongers out of about HK$190 million (US$24.3 million) since January, with police saying they have spotted an increase in cases.
Chief Inspector Wan Pui-yee, from the force’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre, said officers had logged 583 cases of fraudulent customer support calls up to mid-May, with HK$4.16 million the largest single loss.
“Police have noticed an increasing trend in the pretended customer services scam over the past few months,” she warned. “This is a new defrauding trick that we discovered.
“They claimed the victim had wrongly bought a chargeable service and, if the victim did not immediately follow the instructions to cancel the related service, they would be charged or their account would be frozen, as an excuse to coerce the victim into transferring funds and stealing their money.”
Police said the 468 cases reported between January and April, where victims were told they had bought “VIP membership” of online shopping sites, including mainland China’s Taobao and its spin-off Tmall.
A total loss to customer service scams of HK$157 million was recorded for the first quarter of 2024.