Phone scammers devise new racket to cheat Hongkongers
Look out for crooks posing as judiciary officials who claim a summons is awaiting collection, police warn
PUBLISHED : Thursday, 07 January, 2016, 5:46pm
UPDATED : Thursday, 07 January, 2016, 5:46pm
Clifford Lo
[email protected]
A police Fight Crime Bus Parade reminds people to watch out for telephone deceptions.
Hong Kong police suspect telephone con artists have devised a new tactic to dupe the vulnerable out of their money.
In the past six months, scammers posing as mainland officials and couriers cheated Hongkongers out of HK$240 million.
Now they appear to be masquerading as representatives from the judiciary.
“Over the past few days, some residents received phone calls of recorded messages that claimed there were summons awaiting them for collection and they were asked to press a button to make an inquiry,” said a source with knowledge of the investigation.
Although police have yet to receive reports of anyone falling for the tactic, the source believes that after pressing the button, “the call could have been transferred to someone who will use different excuses and intimidating tactics to cheat”, adding: “In the end, we believe victims will be demanded to pay or transfer money to a designated bank account.”
The calls prompted the judiciary to issue a clarification today.
The judiciary recently received inquiries from members of the public concerning phone calls of recorded messages claiming that there are summons awaiting them for collection at a Magistrates’ Court,” its statement said.
“The judiciary can clarify that the phone calls were not made by the judiciary.”
Another source said police were maintaining close contact with the related department and monitoring whether this would become a new way for telephone scammers to operate.
Previously, telephone con artists posed as officials from Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong and staff from courier firms to make scam calls.
Victims are typically told that a parcel they mailed out was problematic and in violation of mainland laws and the calls are then transferred to someone who claims to be mainland police. They are told they have to prove their willingness to co-operate by transferring money to a mainland bank account.
In July, Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong received a deluge of inquiries about the scams – 10,400 from July 19-21 alone.
Between July and November, 434 people fell victim to telephone scams and were conned out of HK$242 million. One victim, veteran soprano Li Yuanrong, 73, was duped out of more than HK$20 million.
In October, mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan police cracked two phone-scam syndicates based in Indonesia and Cambodia and arrested 431 people from the mainland and Taiwan. The gang, set up in Indonesia, allegedly duped Hongkongers out of HK$118 million last year.
They were the first arrests after the State Council set up an inter-ministry task force in June to liaise with police in Hong Kong, Taiwan and elsewhere in Asia on the phone scams.
