Police join hands with banking industry to combat online scams

Citizens will be alerted of possible scamming accounts when transferring money on Faster Payment System (FPS) by the end of this year as police set to roll out measures to lessen the chance of public deception.

Police decided to collaborate with the banking industry to step up the enforcement after nearly 4,900 online shopping scams were reported in the first half of this year, involving about HK$94 million. 

A warning would pop up on buyers’ phones when they make payment via FPS, a money transfer service between banks, to risky accounts that were suspected of involving in online scams, the Police Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau superintendent Chan Shun-ching said.

Chan added that the police planned to roll out a second phase for the alert system to be used on other money transfer platforms.