Close to 1,000 tertiary students have fallen prey to scams in the first half of this year, police said, with the victims swindled out of nearly HK$110 million in total.

The Hong Kong Monetary said it has ordered banking institutions to implement measures to combat fraud, including the introduction of a "dynamic monitoring system" aimed at intercepting suspicious transactions.

As part of its anti-scam month campaign, the Police Anti-Deception Coordination Centre has been giving lectures to university students to promote deception awareness.

Senior Superintendent Terry Law from the Commercial Crime Bureau said of 957 students who were scammed, 64 percent were from Hong Kong.

Another one third or so were from the mainland, although they took up more than 55 percent, or HK$60.3 million, of total losses.

Law added online shopping scams remained the most common, with victims seeking concert tickets often targeted on trading platforms.

Phone scams, with fraudsters impersonating officials or customer service representatives, came in second.

In the largest single case, a 25-year-old Masters student from the mainland lost nearly HK$11 million in April, after acting on instructions from a caller claiming to be a police officer from Zhuhai.

More than 80 percent of tertiary students had encountered scams, according to a Polytechnic University survey of around 3,200 people in May.

Six percent, or 167 of the respondents even suffered monetary losses of up to HK$1.7 million. Nearly half of them did not notify police, with some saying they felt too ashamed to do so.

Monetary Authority executive director Raymond Chan said banks have stepped up vigilance against suspicious transactions involving student accounts.

"Now all the six major banks which have branches at university campus...they have introduced enhanced monitoring of their account activities."

"In case they detect certain suspicions in their account activities, they will ask for the purpose of the transaction [and]...the account of which the payment will be made."

He added a law allowing banks to share information with other banks and law enforcement agencies regarding suspected illegal activities will likely be introduced in November.