Cantopop icon Wan Kwong and HKMA join forces to battle financial crime as Hong Kong sees surge in scams

What do Cantopop icon Wan Kwong and Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, the deputy CEO of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA), have in common?

The unlikely duo has teamed up to fight against a sharp rise in financial fraud cases in Hong Kong and has produced a music video, that includes humorous sketches around common phishing tactics used by scammers.

The Hong Kong Police Force said on Tuesday that the number of scam cases reported last year rose by 40 per cent over 2022 to 39,824 and involved more than HK$9 billion (US$1.2 billion), a near doubling over the previous year.

“With the robust development of information network technology and cross-border consumption and remittances around the globe, many countries and places have seen a significant rise in deception cases and technology crimes in recent years,” the police said.

Scams accounted for 44.1 per cent of all reported crimes, and around 70 per cent of the scams reported last year were internet-related, the police said.

The HKMA video, called Don’t indiscriminately click on links, showed how fraudulent methods are employed to trick individuals into divulging bank and personal information. Imposters use text messages and fraudulent websites to urge citizens to provide account information through hyperlinks, enticing citizens with promotional offers and luring them into downloading counterfeit mobile applications.

The two most common types of deception cases in 2023 were online shopping scams and investment fraud, with the latter experiencing a “1.2-fold increase” compared with the previous year, the police said.

The HKMA reported a similar upwards trend in figures. It said last Friday it had received 1,201 fraud-related banking complaints in 2023, more than double the 555 complaints made in 2022.

The HKMA said last October that it would boost security measures for the city’s fast payment system, to tackle the spike in scam cases. The system also scrutinises if the payee’s server ID is listed as “high risk” on the police’s “Scameter” database.