Hong Kong

Over 230 people in Hong Kong recently fell prey to online scams within a span of a single week, informed the police, according to a South China Morning Post report. The victims were scammed after being tricked into buying discounted hotel and travel packages as well as theme park tickets for the summer holidays. 

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The police said the modus-operandi followed by the scammers included posing as sellers and offering obviously fake services to unsuspecting victims. In order to win the trust of victims, the scammers upon selling the travel or hotel packages, also offered cheap items such as theme park tickets, concert passes, handbags as well as electronic products. 

“Scammers, posing as sellers, attract buyers with limited offers, sales, overseas purchasing services. They ask buyers to transfer money into designated accounts and refuse to trade face-to-face. Upon receiving the money, the ‘sellers’ will vanish into thin air," the police was quoted as saying by the publication. 

“Eighty-two of the 237 reports were related to the purchase of travel or hotel packages,” the police added. 

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Online fraud cases on rise

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Local reports state that the combined losses of all the victims totalled HK$210,000 (US$26,800). In the biggest case in terms of amount, an online shopper was cheated out of more than HK$50,000 ($6,377) 

In the first six months of the year, police handled 4,872 reports of online shopping fraud which was an increase of 23 per cent from 3,954 cases, reported in the same January-June period in 2022. 

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In an attempt to curb the number of cyber fraud cases, the police have introduced a search engine named Scameter. The app, accessible via the CyberDefender website, provides information that helps the public identify suspicious web addresses, emails, phone numbers and IP addresses. 

(With inputs from agencies)

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