By South China Morning Post | Created at 2024-10-31 06:41:44 | Updated at 2024-10-31 09:33:40
2 hours ago
Hong Kong police have issued a warning over an increasing number of scammers posing as officers and technical support staff, as the force launches a second round of a raffle to raise public awareness about fraud.
Commissioner of Police Raymond Siu Chak-yee said on Thursday residents risked losing their life savings to scams in some cases, urging them to use the force’s anti-scam mobile app and hotline if they had any doubts or received suspicious messages.
“The reason we are putting in so much effort to organise an anti-scam raffle, rolling out another round after the first, is because we hope everyone can fully utilise these tools,” Siu said during a prize ceremony for raffle winners.
“Sparing a minute or two could prevent you from losing your lifelong, hard-earned savings to despicable scammers.”
The police chief was referring to the force’s anti-deception hotline and its Scameter app that flags suspicious websites, phone numbers and bank accounts.
Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said the app had been downloaded an additional 170,000 times since the raffle was introduced at the end of last month.
