Fake customer service drives 56% jump in phone scam losses to HK$900 million
“Every one hour, a resident falls for a scam after answering a fraudulent call,” police superintendent says, as force reveals latest figures
Impersonating customer service staff is the “most rampant tactic” used by phone scammers, Hong Kong police have said, revealing the number of such fraud cases rose by 45 per cent to 4,830 in the first half of 2026 compared with a year ago.
Despite the increase, deception cases overall fell slightly between January and June, dropping by 0.7 per cent compared with the same period last year, Superintendent Kwok Ching-yee of the commercial crime bureau said on Friday.
Losses also fell by 0.8 per cent to HK$3.51 billion (US$447.6 million), she noted.
“Among phone scams, impersonating customer service was the most rampant tactic, accounting for nearly half of the cases. In other words, in the first half of this year, one resident fell victim to a phishing scam every four hours,” Kwok said.
“Every one hour, a resident falls for a scam after answering a fraudulent call. On average, victims of each phone scam lost at least around HK$270,000.”
Although the numbers of most online scam cases registered a year-on-year decline, phishing scams rose by 61 per cent to 1,113 cases, and phone scams rose by 45 per cent to 4,830.