The government on Wednesday proposed registration limits for prepaid SIM cards be reduced and new categories of offences be introduced to further combat phone deception in the city.

In a paper submitted to the Legislative Council, the Communications Authority said more efforts were needed to protect people from such scams despite more fraudulent websites and phone numbers having been blocked since the introduction of such measures in September 2022.

It proposed that individuals be only allowed to register for three prepaid SIM cards under the real-name registration programme for subscriber identification module cards, down from the current limit of 10.

Improper use of all types of SIM cards will also be deemed a criminal offence, including providing personal information that enables another person to register for a card, selling or buying cards that have already been registered, and possessing 10 or more cards registered with information from other people without a valid reason.

The Communications Authority suggested such offences should come with fines of HK$25,000 or a prison term of 12 months upon conviction.

It said such amendments could "effectively combat fraudulent activities involving prepaid SIM cards, and thereby better protect telecommunications service users from potential harm", and that the office would "continue to monitor the implementation of anti-phone deception measures and introduce further enhanced measures when necessary".

Since the real-name registration programme was rolled out in September 2023, about 4.84 million prepaid SIM card registrations had been rejected and another 3.46 million cards deregistered after failing sampling checks by the telecommunication service providers.