Scammers now targeting victims already cheated in previous cons, Hong Kong police warn
- Authorities describe sham websites that exploit the ‘helplessness’ of victims who have lost money in other scams, so as to defraud them again
- Number of tech crime cases rises 3.2 per cent in first quarter, while total losses surge to HK$1.62 billion, a whopping 94.2 per cent increase from the same period last year
Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau warned of a rise in fake companies claiming to be private investigators or legal service providers who could recover money lost in scams, and advertising online.
“These scammers portray a professional image to lower the guard of scam victims, exploiting their helplessness to defraud them once again,” Chan said.
According to Chan, the city has seen six such cases so far this year, with losses exceeding HK$8 million (US$1 million).
The emergence of recovery scams are part of a rise in online fraud cases in the city.
Police data showed 7,596 cases of technology crime from January to March this year, a 3.2 per cent rise from 7,361 in the same period last year. Total losses surged to HK$1.62 billion in the first quarter – a whopping 94.2 per cent increase from HK$830 million in the same period last year.
The force removed 8,077 sham websites and Facebook pages during online patrols last year.
Chan said that while most types of online fraud had dropped this year, investment scams and account hijacks had risen with amounts lost surging.
In the first three months, 979 cases of online investment fraud were reported, a 55.2 per cent rise from 631 in the same period in 2023. Losses have skyrocketed 128.4 per cent to HK$690 million from HK$300 million in the same period last year.
Online account hijacks also increased more than 10 times from 85 cases in the first quarter of 2023 to 915 in the same period this year. Chan attributed this to a rise of such scams at the end of last year. The amount lost from January to March this year was HK$27 million.
Chief Inspector Felton Leung Yee-tak of the bureau said scammers engineered their sham websites to appear as top search results for relevant keywords such as “scams” or “fraud recovery”.
“Once the victim contacts these fraudsters, they are referred to an online consultation on messaging apps. Fraudsters will obtain information about the first scam, such as the amount lost and chat or transaction records, before claiming to investigate the case,” Leung said.
But these bogus professionals would direct victims to lottery websites instead, telling them they could only recover funds through winnings on these sham platforms, which also charged them service fees.
One of these victims was a self-employed man surnamed Chan in his 50s. Chan first lost more than HK$600,000 in an online shopping scam last July, before coming across an advertisement on Facebook promoting a fake recovery service.
Chan was soon directed to a Macau-based lottery website. He was initially able to win a few thousand dollars from online games on the platform, with winnings transferred to his bank account.
“[The scammers] told me this was technology they invented, that I had to keep pouring money into the account I had set up there and play the online games to get back funds I had lost,” Chan recalled.
“It felt real. There was hard cash flowing into my bank account.”
But Chan’s hopes were soon dashed when a bank officer told him there was no “technology” involved in the transaction and he had unwittingly given away his account details to the scammers.
The man’s subsequent attempts to withdraw money from the lottery platform were met with requests to pay “penalties” and Chan ended up losing more than HK$210,000 in the scam.
Michael Fung Ho-kin, a clinical psychologist with police, said people who had already been defrauded once remained vulnerable to further scams.
“Their losses are beyond money, as they also suffered great mental anguish,” Fung said. “They wonder why they were so foolish as to be tricked” and felt an urgency to recover their funds to make up for their humiliation, he added.
Leung urged residents to be suspicious of information gleaned from the internet, check for typos or inconsistencies between traditional and simplified Chinese on websites, and be wary when talking to unknown online sources about their experiences with scams.
Solicitor Eric Chan Pak-ho, who runs his own firm CPH Legal, said asset recovery services existed in the form of civil litigation. In such litigation, victims might be advised to freeze their bank account to prevent further transfers, request their bank to make up for lost amounts, or sue the owner of the account into which scammed funds were deposited.
He added that scam victims were better off directly approaching lawyers or law firms with a directory listing on the Hong Kong Law Society website.
