Rising scams involving phishing links swindled $36mn out of Carousell sellers

Police alert the public to a rising trend of scammers exploiting online shopping platforms to obtain users' bank account information. One platform alone has reported more than 600 scam incidents, leading to losses totaling HK$36 million.

Authorities said over 28,000 technology crime cases have been logged as of October this year. Notably, a third of the cases involve online shopping platforms -- marking a 23 percent increase compared to last year -- and resulted in total losses amounting to HK$330 million.

Among the incidents, 644 cases were related to the Carousell platform. Scammers were said to pose as buyers or even pretend to be the platform's administrators while sending fake payment confirmation messages via chat or email.

The scammer claimed to have bought the items and asked the sellers to click on a link to provide their bank account details in order to receive payments. However, the links led to phishing sites and the sellers' account funds were stolen by the scammers.

The highest losses in one case involve about HK$900,000.

Police noted that similar scams also occur in Singapore and Malaysia, and they will investigate whether scam syndicates are involved.

In response, Carousell advises users not to click on links or scan QR codes from senders that they do not recognize and do not provide sensitive personal information over email or chat.