Exclusive | ICBC Asia to combat fraud by doubling down on AI amid rise in scams, anti-financial crimes chief says

The number of cases involving scams reported in Hong Kong last year rose by 40 per cent year on year to 39,824 and involved more than HK$9 billion (US$1.2 billion), nearly doubling over the previous year, the Hong Kong police said this month.

“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 in a media briefing on February 6.

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

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ICBC Asia will also step up its efforts to educate customers about protecting themselves from scams, Mak said. “We recommend three ‘don’ts’ to customers – don’t easily trust anyone, don’t be greedy, don’t be reckless,” he added.

Mak, who was trained as an accountant and worked in PwC in the 1990s, joined the police force in 2003 before shifting to the banking sector 10 years ago. He worked at HSBC and Ant Group before taking up his current post at ICBC Asia, where he heads a team of 70 staff checking for potential fraud, corruption and money laundering.

“My accounting knowledge as well as the investigative skill set I picked up while working with the police have proved to be very useful in my current job,” Mak said.

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In many cases, victims believe stories made up by scammers, who tell them to give them money to rescue their sons or friends in trouble. Some are fake investment cases, where victims may be tempted into investing in schemes with unreasonably high returns, but when they try to get their money back, the scammers disappear.

“Advances in technology and the wide use of the internet have made it very cheap for scammers to use telephone calls or WhatsApp to pitch victims,” Mak said. “It is therefore important for banks to introduce anti-fraud measures to protect customers.”

ICBC Asia has successfully used tech and big data to trace scammers trying to fool its clients. It also provides a lot of training to its front-end staff.

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The front-end staff have helped prevent several customers from suffering losses at the hands of scammers, after they found that customers displayed unusual behaviour, or were nervous about opening accounts or doing banking transactions, he added. The next step forward is to further strengthen the bank’s ability to identify fraudulent activity by using AI and continuing to make efforts in anti-fraud education to protect its customers.