Thursday, July 31, 2014, 09:03
Violent crimes fall, but other offences rise: Police stats
Hong Kong saw an overall dip in crime during the first half of the year but drug seizures, blackmail and deception cases are rising, police revealed on Wednesday.
The first half of 2014 saw the number of violent crimes involving murders, robberies, wounding and criminal intimidation went down overall. However, instances of blackmail nearly doubled with 422 cases being reported; while social media scams surged in the first half of the year.
There were 4,372 cases of deception compared to 3,585 cases in the first half of 2013 — most cases involved Internet and telephones scams. The total rose 22 percent, Director of Crime and Security Lo Mung-hung said.
Lo cited a naked-chat blackmail syndicate which police smashed earlier this year, with overseas help, as just one example of 130 such cases.
Online business scams also rose with 530 additional cases representing an 82 percent rise compared to the same period a year before. Losses from these scams totaled some HK$26 million. More than half online business scams involved online auctions or shopping sites. The remaining 42 percent involved online business or credit card abuse.
There were 466 instances of social media fraud, a three-fold increase from only 109 cases in the first half of 2013. Losses from these crimes amounted to HK$43 million.
“Fraudsters first logged in to an account by unlawful means and contacted friends on the user’s directory,” a police spokesman said.
“Targets were told to buy game cards at convenience stores and were further requested to send the serial number as well as PIN number on to him or her.
“Upon receiving these particulars, fraudsters would sell the game cards for money,” added the spokesman.
Older forms of technology fraud continued to proliferate, with a 35.4 percent rise in telephone scams with 1,178 reports of telephone deception. Nearly all cases involved virtual kidnappings or other scams, police said.
Big businesses also fell victim to corporate scams. There was an increase of 58 percent — a total of 569 cases. This amounted to HK$570 million in losses in the first half of 2014.
The number of reported rapes was down to 22 in the first six months of the year, compared to 59 in the same period of 2013.
The number of methamphetamine seizures more than doubled in the first half of 2014 with 180 cases compared to only 80 in the first half of 2013. Ketamine seizures also leapt from 112 to 205 cases in the first half of 2013 and 2014 respectively — a jump of 83 percent.
Cannabis finds also jumped from 40 in the first half of 2013 to 64 in the same period this year. This was a 60 percent increase. Seizures of Ecstasy type tablets, heroin and cocaine all fell by 63 percent, 39.2 percent and 28.2 percent, respectively.
Contact the writers attim@chinadailyhk.com
The first half of 2014 saw the number of violent crimes involving murders, robberies, wounding and criminal intimidation went down overall. However, instances of blackmail nearly doubled with 422 cases being reported; while social media scams surged in the first half of the year.
There were 4,372 cases of deception compared to 3,585 cases in the first half of 2013 — most cases involved Internet and telephones scams. The total rose 22 percent, Director of Crime and Security Lo Mung-hung said.
Lo cited a naked-chat blackmail syndicate which police smashed earlier this year, with overseas help, as just one example of 130 such cases.
Online business scams also rose with 530 additional cases representing an 82 percent rise compared to the same period a year before. Losses from these scams totaled some HK$26 million. More than half online business scams involved online auctions or shopping sites. The remaining 42 percent involved online business or credit card abuse.
There were 466 instances of social media fraud, a three-fold increase from only 109 cases in the first half of 2013. Losses from these crimes amounted to HK$43 million.
“Fraudsters first logged in to an account by unlawful means and contacted friends on the user’s directory,” a police spokesman said.
“Targets were told to buy game cards at convenience stores and were further requested to send the serial number as well as PIN number on to him or her.
“Upon receiving these particulars, fraudsters would sell the game cards for money,” added the spokesman.
Older forms of technology fraud continued to proliferate, with a 35.4 percent rise in telephone scams with 1,178 reports of telephone deception. Nearly all cases involved virtual kidnappings or other scams, police said.
Big businesses also fell victim to corporate scams. There was an increase of 58 percent — a total of 569 cases. This amounted to HK$570 million in losses in the first half of 2014.
The number of reported rapes was down to 22 in the first six months of the year, compared to 59 in the same period of 2013.
The number of methamphetamine seizures more than doubled in the first half of 2014 with 180 cases compared to only 80 in the first half of 2013. Ketamine seizures also leapt from 112 to 205 cases in the first half of 2013 and 2014 respectively — a jump of 83 percent.
Cannabis finds also jumped from 40 in the first half of 2013 to 64 in the same period this year. This was a 60 percent increase. Seizures of Ecstasy type tablets, heroin and cocaine all fell by 63 percent, 39.2 percent and 28.2 percent, respectively.
Contact the writers attim@chinadailyhk.com
