Crimes spiral amid naked chat traps

Jane Cheung

Blackmail cases rose 30 percent to 921 as overall crimes in the first half increased by 1.8 percent, police said, adding that many of the blackmails exposed students and young people below 30 years old to "naked chats."

Officers said yesterday a total of 31,434 crimes were carried out, 1.8 percent more than 30,871 in the first half of last year.

The increase was mainly caused by a rise in the number of scams by over 3,000, while blackmail and homicide cases also saw a significant rise.

Of the 921 blackmail cases, 708 had involved "naked chats," 215 more.

One in four victims were students, while over 60 percent of victims were 30 years old or younger.

Where scams are concerned, the police saw a surge in cases to 12,326, 41.7 percent more than the 8,699 seen in the first half of last year.

Over 70 percent of the cons were internet-related, including 3,954 online shopping fraud cases, 1,706 employment, 1,271 investment and 786 telephone, all of which saw astronomical increases of between 40 percent and a fourfold jump.

Over HK$700 million were lost in investment frauds and HK$400 million in telephone scams.

The most common investment frauds involved "romance scam tactics" and fake investment applications to deceive victims, while that of telephone scams mostly involved scam artists trying to get people to believe they are officials, and all too often succeeding in doing so, or playing the "guess who" trick.

"Police have been mounting intelligence-led operations, neutralizing multiple deception syndicates in the past six months with the arrest of over 250 persons involved in over 1,000 cases of fraud," the police said, adding the cases involved a sum of HK$500 million.

"The anti-deception coordination center continued to contribute by preventing victims in over 300 cases from wiring money to fraudsters and intercepting over HK$700 million before the money reached the scammers."

Officers reminded people to stay vigilant when receiving unfamiliar phone calls, in particular from those who claim to be mainland officials, or delivery companies.

"Mainland law enforcement officers would neither conduct investigation through calls, nor request any one to provide bank card numbers and passwords or make a bank transfer or remittance in order to prove one's innocence," the force said.

People can call the 24-hour anti-scam helpline at 18222 when in doubt.

In homicides, 16 cases were seen, six more than the 10 perpetrated in the first half of last year and with 11 of them involving domestic or family violence. All of the cases have been solved.

By June 30, 201 people have been arrested under the national security law, among whom over half have been charged.

Its "counter-terrorism reporting hotline 63-666-999" has received over 3,800 messages as of the middle of this month.