Money Safe service will help prevent banking fraud

June Chen

Hong Kong Monetary Authority plans to launch "Money Safe" services by the end of next year, aiming to reduce the risk of fraudsters transferring funds from victims' accounts immediately.

Through the service, the designated amount of deposits will not be transferable through any channel, including withdrawals, account transfers, automatic account transfers, credit card and loan repayments, and bank fees, etc.

Clients of commercial banks can choose whether to use this service and it is expected that several big banks will be able to pilot the service in the first quarter of next year - with the measure to be fully implemented in the city by the end of next year.

Arthur Yuen, the deputy chief executive of the HKMA, said users can set the number of deposits that will be under the protection of the "Money Safe" and if they want to cancel this service or decrease the amount of sheltered funds, they would have to do it in person at physical banks. The banks will then carry out instructions within three working days.

In the first 10 months of this year, the HKMA had received 683 complaints related to fraud, still at a high level though the number dropped by 35 percent year-on-year.

Besides, the data from police showed that in the first nine months, the number of fraud cases increased by 8 percent to 32,120 compared to a year earlier and as of this August, the amount of victims' losses had surpassed HK$5.82 billion.

Among these cases, some victims were cheated by fraudsters who had transferred their deposits to the fraudsters' accounts, resulting in losses.

In some scam cases, fraudsters disguised themselves as sellers of online shopping platforms and sent phishing shopping links, where victims were cheated into entering their online bank accounts and passwords - then the fraudsters made the unauthorized transfers.

Yuen said, "Money Safe" is suitable for people who are susceptible to fraud, so people can help their elderly parents use it. The service will offer users time to settle down and bank staff can also have a chance to help them keep an eye out for frauds.

The measure will mainly cover retail bank individual customers, and will also apply to checks, time deposit accounts in Hong Kong dollars and major foreign currencies, as well as joint accounts.