On the 18th and 19th, the criminal division of the Hong Kong police force held the“Fight Crime Elite Games” in the West Kowloon Cultural District. Losses from fraud cases in the first eight months of this year were down by more than 10 per cent compared with the same period last year, while the number of juvenile arrests for criminal Commissioner of Police in the first eight months of this year continued to drop, the Hong Kong government said on Monday at the launch ceremony, less than 10% compared with the same period last year, indicating that Hong Kong’s comprehensive anti-fraud efforts are starting to bear fruit.
Hong Kong Police recorded 28,000 fraud cases in the first eight months of this year, with victims’ losses falling 14.5 percent to HK $5.02 billion compared with the same period last year, Wenhui.com reported Thursday. Zhou Yiming said that the police and various parties have adopted a comprehensive strategy to combat and prevent fraud cases, and the results are gradually showing. However, the number of cases is still at a relatively high level, and there are even cases involving large losses. The Hong Kong Police should continue to refine their response strategies, including strengthening the anti-fraud industry chain, anti-fraud publicity and international co-operation. The police will launch an enhanced version of the“Anti-fraud TV App”. The new features include automatic updating of the fraud database and real-time detection of reports by artificial intelligence, so as to provide more rapid alerts to the public.
Zhou also mentioned data on juvenile crime in Hong Kong. In the first eight months of this year, the number of juveniles arrested for criminal offences continued to drop, dropping 10 percent from the same period last year to 1,742, of these, arrests for money laundering and fraud cases fell by 50 per cent and 32.4 per cent respectively.
Hong Kong Police have been trying to crack down on youth-related fraud. A total of 270 phone scams involving students from tertiary institutions in the first eight months of this year cost victims more than HK $100m, Hong Kong’s Toutiao daily reported recently. According to data from Hong Kong Business Daily website, from January to June this year, a total of 957 students from post-secondary institutions were deceived, including 644 local students and 313 mainland students. The amount of losses incurred by mainland students was relatively large, hK $60.31 million. In April this year, there were several serious cases in which a 25-year-old mainland master’s student was swindled out of HK $10.97 million, while another 19-year-old mainland university student who came to Hong Kong to work as an errand boy for a fraud syndicate posing as officials was involved in three fraud cases, the total amount involved was about HK $8.79 million.
Senior Superintendent of the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force, Luo Guokai, said that the Hong Kong Police had organised a series of publicity activities for local and mainland students during the first semester, including encouraging new students to complete online anti-fraud courses through universities, by the end of August, 18,000 new students had completed their studies. At the same time, the Hong Kong Police, in collaboration with banks and real estate agents, distributed anti-fraud leaflets and stickers for“Good Kids”, implemented a mechanism for monitoring students’ bank accounts, and launched anti-fraud advertisements. In the first semester of this year, the Hong Kong Police have organised 32 anti-deception education talks and activities, covering more than 4,000 students A survey of students’ perception of fraud was conducted in 10 universities in Hong Kong.
Professor Xu Xin of the Hong Kong Polytechnic University said the survey was conducted at four universities, including the Hong Kong Polytechnic University, the University of Hong Kong, the City University of Hong Kong and the Education University of Hong Kong, a total of 3189 students participated. Telephone calls, text messages, instant messaging software and social media were among the most common forms of fraud. The five most common types of fraud are fake official calls, high-paid part-time fraud, limited time or lottery fraud, investment fraud and online shopping fraud. Hong Kong media said the Hong Kong Police will set up a new platform with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and others, hoping to more comprehensively support and protect students from fraud.