While Hong Kong’s recent crime statistics on deception cases are on the rise, one noticeable trend is the increase in telephone scams, which keep thriving despite the government’s new policy of real-name registration of mobile phone SIM cards since March. This measure has raised public concerns about further curtailment of freedom and rights.
Deception Cases Rise with a Noticeable Increase in Telephone Scams
Among all types of fraud, phone scams have seen a striking increase.‘Guess Who’ Game Is the Most Common Trick
CCB shared a case in an April press briefing. A man received a phone call from a scammer claiming that the man’s son had been arrested and needed a large amount of money for a solution. The man believed this and gave the scammer money and personal information, such as his ID card number, resulting in the loss of his entire life savings of HK$1.2 million (US$150,000).Real-Name Registration Launched to Combat Fraud and Other Crimes
To fight serious and organized crimes, including telephone scams, the government implemented the Real Name Registration Programme for mobile phone SIM cards on March 1. Pre-paid SIM card users must also give their name, date of birth, and ID card number information to the telecommunications operators for registration. Otherwise, the phone card will not function. Business firms using pre-paid SIM cards must also register with their business registration information. Signing contracts, including real-name registration at initiation and service renewal, is necessary for those taking up service plans with telecommunications operators.The then Under Secretary for Security, Sonny Au Chi-kwong said in early 2021 that 90 percent of the telephone deception cases were operated with anonymous phone cards, which had posed additional challenges to a police investigation.
However, the real-name registration measure has been causing concern about possible suppression of civic activities and thus undermining freedoms and rights. A similar measure adopted in mainland China in 2010 has been criticized by human rights groups as being used to monitor its people.
Phone Scams Continue After Introduction of Phone-card Real Name Registration
Four months have passed since the real-name registration for phone cards was implemented in March, and there has not been a lessening trend in telephone fraud so far. Although no formal statistics on the number of telephone deception cases were collected to reveal the situation, some observations suggest that telephone scams continue to flourish.According to Hong Kong’s online platform for intercepting suspicious phone calls, “HKJunkCall,” there has been a growing number of problematic phone calls, at least within recent weeks.
Radio Free Asia reported on July 10, that the number of suspicious phone calls recorded by “HKJunkCall” exceeded 100 cases within four hours on that day. Three days later, on July 13, The Epoch Times saw the recorded suspicious phone calls on “HKJunkCall” rising to 100 within a three-hour period. The Epoch Times tracked it again on July 17 and found that the intensity had escalated—just over 100 phone scams were recorded within one hour, which continued throughout the afternoon.
Police Operations Having Sucess Against Fraud and Money Laundering
Faced with an ever-increasing number of fraud and deception cases, the police have taken numerous measures, some of which have been effective. The police reported in 2022 that its Anti-Deception Coordination Center (ADCC) intercepted over HK$1.3 billion (US$170 million) in payments, prevented money transfers to fraudsters in over 500 fraud cases, and arrested about 1,300 people for fraud.The police set up a working group with the Office of the Communications Authority and major mobile network operators in September 2022 to combat phone scams, by helping residents filter and block suspicious incoming calls.