Fraud cases surge attributes to 29 pc increase in crimes, says police chief

Police commissioner Raymond Siu Chak-yee said Tuesday that there was a nearly 29 percent increase in crime in 2023 compared to the previous year, as there was a significant increase in deception cases.

Siu reported to the Legislative Council Panel on Security that there were a total of 90,276 crime cases last year, which saw an increase of 20,228 cases compared to 2022.

He added that the detection rate of overall crimes was 31.1 percent, increasing to 46.2 percent if fraud cases are excluded.

He stated that there were 39,824 fraud cases recorded in 2023, a 42.6 percent increase compared to 2022 and a nearly quadruple rise compared to 2018's 31,452.

Most of the fraud cases included online shopping, investment, phishing, job employment, social media, and telephone scams.

In light of the rise of scam cases, he stated the police are stepping up enforcement, along with intercepting fraud payments and early warnings of fraudulent cases, to minimize the losses for the victims.

The police chief said they will also strengthen the promotional work and roll out more measures against fraud with relevant stakeholders, such as establishing the Anti-Deception Alliance and launching the FPS Suspicious Proxy ID Alert with major banks in the city.