Loophole blamed as construction worker tells of voucher scam

A construction worker has complained to police that his HK$2,000 consumer voucher was stolen, saying authorities sent it to a fraudster's Octopus card.

The man surnamed Yau told media he never received a confirmation SMS.

He went to the voucher secretariat last week and was told his voucher had already been issued.

Staff said the system showed that he had changed his phone number and registered Octopus card last month, so the voucher had been disbursed to the newly registered card.

Yau said other people also came to the secretariat suspecting their information had been stolen.

"I would not be that angry if I lost my Octopus card and someone used my vouchers," Yau said.

He said there is a "massive loophole" in the registration and transfer platform of the scheme, adding that anyone with a copy of the registrant's ID card could simply click "forgot security question" and upload a copy of the ID card to log into the card holder's account. And then the scammer could easily change the phone number and Octopus card information.

Yau said he had never lost his ID card, but added that he had to often give copies of it to others due to the nature of his job.

He said the government does not send an identification SMS and verification code when someone is amending personal information through the system.

Yau also questioned why authorities still gave out the voucher to the fraudster, even though he reported to the authority that his personal information had been stolen on August 5, two days before the disbursement.

Police told The Standard they received a report on Monday from a 34-year-old man surnamed Yau who suspected his information was stolen when someone else called the Octopus company to change the card used for voucher registration.

After preliminary investigation, the case was classified as fraud and will be followed by the Mong Kok district's criminal investigation division. No arrest has been made.

"The authentication method follows the practice of last year's consumption voucher scheme and has passed the security risk and privacy assessment by an independent consultant to meet the relevant security requirements," a government spokesman told The Standard.

He said if registrants change their phone numbers on the platform, they will receive an SMS notification sent by the secretariat on both old and new numbers.

"The secretariat will follow up on similar inquiries," the spokesman said.

eunice.lam@singtaonewscorp.com