The police notice comes in Chinese, leading many unsuspecting expats to believe they're being scammed. Photo: EJ Insight
This can’t be happening but it is at this writing.
A police warning against telephone fraud went out in text messages Friday but some expat recipients mistook them for a scam.
Reason: it was all in Chinese characters.
Incidentally, Hong Kong’s official languages are English and Chinese and both are used in official communications.
The confusion came as some victims were still smarting from telephone scams involving fraudsters posing as mainland police, Hong Kong graft officials, even representatives from Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong.
Earlier, the Hong Kong police said they are cooperating with the four mobile operators to issue SMS alerts about phone fraud.
There was no mention of how the cooperation exactly works.
But citizens who received the notices found they could not stop them from cropping up on their mobile phones.
Here’s our translation of the SMS:
Police reminder: Beware of telephone deception! If you receive calls from people claiming as officers from law enforcement or any other organization and requesting money or personal bank account details, be alert and don’t believe them right away. If you suspect you have fallen victim to deception, please contact the Hong Kong Police for assistance immediately.
– Contact us at english@hkej.com
DY/JP/RA
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