Hong Kong police warn that scammers posing as officers and IT staff
Police chief urges vigilance over ‘despicable scammers’, as force launches second round of raffle to raise public awareness about fraud
Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee said on Thursday residents risked losing their life savings to scams in some cases, urging them to use the force’s anti-scam mobile app and hotline if they had any doubts or received suspicious messages.
“The reason we are putting in so much effort to organise an anti-scam raffle, rolling out another round after the first, is because we hope everyone can fully utilise these tools,” Siu said during a prize ceremony for raffle winners.
“Sparing a minute or two could prevent you from losing your lifelong, hard-earned savings to despicable scammers.”
The police chief was referring to the force’s anti-deception hotline and its Scameter app that flags suspicious websites, phone numbers and bank accounts.
Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said the app had been downloaded an additional 170,000 times since the raffle was introduced at the end of last month.
