Police have arrested 269 people over the past two weeks in connection with 203 technology scam cases, involving total losses of HK$320 million.

The 203 cases mainly involved phone scams, online shopping and investment fraud.

Superintendent Kwok Ching-yee, from the Commercial Crime Bureau, said officers managed to intercept HK$2.5 million of the stolen funds.

The largest single loss in a phone scam recorded in the first half of the year, she said, involved fraudsters impersonating customer service officers, tricking the victim out of nearly HK$4 million.

“This victim received a call from scammers impersonating a staff member of Alipay customer service, who then falsely claimed the victim had purchased an insurance plan,” she said.

“A phishing link was then subsequently sent through WhatsApp, and then the victim was instructed to deposit money to cancel the policy on the pretext that the full amount would be refunded.”

“Ultimately, the victim made 13 bank transactions resulting in a loss of HK$4 million.”

Kwok pointed out that Alipay logs official records within its app whenever its customer service team contacts a user. She advised the public to hang up and check the app first if they receive an unverified call.

She added that scammers also frequently pose as customer service staff from SF Express.

Kwok noted that the courier firm stopped making phone calls and sending SMS messages in April, switching exclusively to its official app for customer support.

As part of the two-week operation, police also made arrests targeting a syndicate that used forged Hong Kong ID cards to open bank accounts for money laundering.

Officers said the syndicate made over 200 attempts to open new accounts across three local banks and a stored-value payment operator from November to July, successfully setting up 42, 14 of which were used for money laundering.

Police said the counterfeit IDs were created using AI image-editing software to swap faces on stolen or lost cards.

The force also urged members of the public never to share selfie photographs with others.


Edited by Aaron Tam