Scams made up nearly half of the 94,000 crimes recorded in Hong Kong over the past year, the police chief said on Tuesday.

Delivering an annual roundup to lawmakers, Police Commissioner Raymond Siu said the total number of crimes recorded last year was a five percent rise over the figure for 2023.

The force logged more than 44,000 scam cases, up about 12 percent.

More than 10,000 suspects in total were held over offences relating to scams and money laundering, Siu said.

He conceded that it is not easy to solve such crimes, with the detection rate at 10.6 percent.

"Many of these deception cases happened online or they involved phone scams. A majority of fraudsters rang from somewhere outside Hong Kong. Once the victim became aware of the situation, we're talking about weeks or months after the commission of the crime, so by the time we received the report, it would be too late," Siu said.

At the Legislative Council panel meeting, the police chief and a number of lawmakers brought up the problem of mainland students at universities in Hong Kong falling victim to scams.

Siu said Hong Kong and mainland officials have discussed how to boost education on scams among students and parents.

He said 80 percent of the mainland students falling prey to scams were in their first year in the SAR.

"These students got a call from scammers before the school year started," Siu said. "After the school year started, the students might already be exposed to scam awareness information, so these students would become harder to be scammed."

On other crime figures, the police chief said more than 2,000 mainland tourists were arrested last year, with almost half of them picked up over scams and money laundering offences.

At a press conference following the meeting, Siu said the force recorded more than 300 cases last year where mainland students were reportedly scammed, involving more than HK$230 million.

Looking ahead, the police chief said the force in the coming year would focus on safeguarding national security, fighting crime, especially scam-related ones, and making sure November's National Games will be held in an orderly, safe and secure manner.
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Last updated: 2025-02-11 HKT 18:59