Police on Friday said they had arrested 13 people who were suspected of laundering about HK$113 million between June last year and January this year by tricking people looking for jobs into helping the syndicate get hold of iAM smart accounts which they then used to create fake identities.

Speaking at a press briefing, acting superintendent Wong Yuk-yan said an operation was conducted between March 18 and 19, during which officers arrested 13 people from the syndicate including nine men and four women aged between 38 and 75.

"The criminal syndicate registered stored value facility accounts with different phone numbers and then published fake advertisements for cleaners in newspapers," she said.

"The syndicate asked job seekers to open an iAM Smart account at a nearby self-registration kiosk, claiming to use them for registration and payroll. It then used these accounts for identity verification to launder and receive stolen money," she added.

Police said it recovered around HK$2 million in illicitly gained funds.

Combined with 12 people previously arrested between last October and January this year, 25 people have now been detained in connection with this syndicate involving some 105 fraud cases, Wong noted.

Most cases were job scams, she said.

Computers, mobile phones and bank cards were also seized in the operation.

Police said money laundering is a serious offence, with penalties of up to HK$5 million in fines and 14 years imprisonment.

It also urged the public to secure their own personal accounts and privacy information from scams.


Edited by Tony Sabine