Hong Kong widens net to snare fraudsters as losses from online scams surge
- Losses involving cybercrime cases reported in Hong Kong jumped 31 per cent to US$340 million in the first six months of 2024, compared with a year ago
Hong Kong is widening the scope of anti-fraud alerts for internet banking and transactions at physical branches in response to the spike in online scams in the city.
A total of 32 banks and 10 stored-value-facility (SVF) operators from Sunday will send a warning when users make payments to suspicious accounts at bank counters and via online fund transfers within the same bank or to a different bank or through SVFs, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), the police and the Hong Kong Association of Banks announced on Thursday.
The police force’s “Scameter”, a suspicious proxy identification search engine, will identify these payees.
Alerts on automatic teller machines are expected to be launched by the end of this year, upon completion of testing.
“After this expansion, the coverage of bank transfer transactions will increase from 35 per cent to 84 per cent,” said Carmen Chu, executive director of banking supervision at HKMA.
The coverage will basically widen to include the fund transfer transactions, which will enhance protection for customers by sending “high risk” alerts to warn them before they execute the transaction, she added.
