Scams top crime surge

The crime rate for the first quarter rose by nearly 50 percent from a year ago to 20,584, with scams contributing the most, Secretary for Security Chris Tang Ping-keung said.

Speaking after the Fight Crime Committee meeting yesterday, Tang said the number of scam cases continued to rise last year, by more than 3,500 cases to 8,866 in the first quarter, to account for 43 percent of all crimes.

Apart from scams, Tang said, the number of most crimes such as theft, burglary, robbery, wounding and serious assault were about the same or less than that of the first quarter of 2019 before the pandemic.

In combating scams, Tang said the police is countering the surge with intelligence-led operations, collaboration with different stakeholders to intercept the fraudulent transactions as well as publicity and education projects.

He noted that online shopping, phone and romance scams in the first quarter this year fell 4.9 percent, 48 percent, and 9.2 percent respectively compared to the previous quarter.

The task force set up by the police, Office of the Communications Authority and mobile network operators in September has been actively fighting telephone scams and cyber frauds in the past six months, Tang said.

For example, users will receive warning messages or voice alerts from mobile network operators and telecommunication companies when receiving overseas calls starting with "+852" from May 1.

The anti-fraud coordination centre prevented over 220 fraud cases and intercepted HK$380 million in fraudulent funds in the first quarter.

Tang said the force plans to set up a joint intelligence center with major banks with bank staff serving in the centre to provide immediate assistance to the police on fraud cases.

He hoped intelligence analysis could be strengthened to identify suspicious accounts, detect and intercept fraudulent transactions and take immediate actions to assist fraud victims and to combat fraudulent activities.

stacy.shi@singtaonewscoro.com