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Editorial
To combat scams, Hong Kong needs stronger crackdowns, greater vigilance
The police’s latest efforts are encouraging, but with one Hongkonger duped by a fraudulent call every hour, there’s no room for complacency
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Editorials represent the views of the South China Morning Post on the issues of the day.
Hong Kong rightly prides itself on being one of the world’s safest cities with regard to violent crime. Yet the latest deception figures make clear that safety on the streets is no guarantee of safety over the phone and internet. Police are to be commended for their recent operations that smashed sophisticated fraud syndicates, including those employing hotel rooms as call centres and identity cards forged using artificial intelligence (AI) to launder money. But the underlying trend is hardly reassuring. Deception remains an entrenched, evolving problem that demands not only more forceful crackdowns but also greater public vigilance.
The recent wave of unauthorised credit card transactions linked to pre-orders of Apple’s newest iPhones, involving more than 1,200 transactions worth HK$25 million (US$3.2 million), is another reminder of the city’s prevalent tech-scam problem.
In the first half of 2026, the total number of deception cases edged down by 0.7 per cent compared with the same period last year while losses fell 0.8 per cent to HK$3.51 billion. Despite the nominal decreases, the trend appears to be persistent. Phishing scams surged 61 per cent to 1,113 cases, while phone scams jumped 45 per cent to 4,830 cases, with losses from phone scams alone reaching HK$900 million – up 56 per cent. Put simply, phone and online scams remain an issue of grave public concern.
Police warnings must not be ignored. On average, one resident falls for a phishing scam every four hours and another is duped by a fraudulent call every hour. Each phone scam victim loses an average of HK$270,000. The largest single phone scam loss in the first half of this year involved nearly HK$4 million. The victim was tricked by scammers pretending to be customer service staff into making 13 bank transfers after clicking a WhatsApp link.
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