Hong Kong police cut off alleged city-based Malaysian phone scam gang in first for force
- 11 people snared in crackdown on alleged Malaysian phone scam gang said to have operated from bases across city
Hong Kong police have arrested six Malaysians and five local residents alleged to be involved in an international HK$61 million-plus (US$7.8 million) phone scam racket after a crackdown on the first international gang found to have set up bases in the city.
Officers revealed on Saturday that they broke up the group’s four centres of operation in Hong Kong on Thursday.
Police said six Malaysian men and five Hongkongers, three women and two men, aged between 20 and 67, were arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud, use of false documents and money laundering.
“Police believe that this transnational criminal group had successfully committed more than 400 similar phone scams since April this year, involving a total amount of more than HK$61 million,” Superintendent Dicken Ko Tik of the force’s cyber security and technology crime bureau, said.
“This is also the first time that police have discovered that an overseas criminal group had established bases in Hong Kong.”
The force said the international gang had sent members to the city who used false identity documents to buy and register Hong Kong phone cards before they set up bases to operate large amounts of phone numbers.
