Police on Wednesday said they’ve recorded a 58-percent jump in fraud cases in the first five months of this year, compared to the same period in 2022.

The force said there were 15,792 fraud cases from January to May – over 75 percent of them being related to online fraud.

Phishing scams accounted for 2,369 cases.

Officers noted that in many of the incidents, the scammers would impersonate banks, telecommunications companies, or government institutions and send fraudulent text messages, to dupe individuals into providing their credit card details.

Speaking at a press briefing, the Office of the Communications Authority said it is working closely with police and mobile service providers to establish a registration system for SMS senders by the end of this year.

“The scheme is very complex… it will cover the banking industry as well as the telecommunications industry,” the authority’s principal regulatory affairs manager, Wilson Lee, said.

Senior Superintendent of the Commercial Crime Bureau Tsang Nga-sze, for her part, said there’s no single solution to the problem.

“So we want to raise the awareness of the public to be honest and to be cautious, and don't ever believe what you receive,” she said.

The force also urged people to keep an eye out for potential investment and job scams.