Police have not received reports of any victims being duped, but are monitoring the situation
CLIFFORD.LO@SCMP.COM
PUBLISHED : Tuesday, 19 January, 2016, 10:20am
UPDATED : Tuesday, 19 January, 2016, 10:20am
Typical scam calls involve a recorded message telling the victims they have a package with a courier company. Photo: Shutterstock
Telephone con artists are apparently targeting English speakers in Hong Kong, prompting the police to monitor whether this will become a new type of phone scam.
Some residents have received phone calls, apparently made from Singapore, which played recorded messages in English claiming the caller had a parcel addressed to the potential victim and asking them to talk to the courier’s executives.
Scam calls of the same nature were recorded in either Cantonese or Putonghua previously, according to the police. The calls were transferred to a bogus mainland official who used intimidation tactics to cheat victims.
A police source said: “It is the first time I have heard of this. We have not received reports of anyone falling for this tactic.”
He said it was too early to say if telephone scammers were using a new tactic or targeting English speakers in the city.
“We have to wait and see,” the source said. “But the public should stay alert for such calls.”
One of the would-be victims received a scam call at about 7.30am on Sunday.
“Hello, we are calling from S.F. Express. Your have a parcel mailed to you but still with us. Please talk to our customer service officer,” said the recorded message.
It was followed by a beep, the call was apparently being forwarded before the receiver hung up. The telephone display showed that the call was made from Singapore.
Another source with knowledge of investigations into phone scams said that scammers usually made internet calls through many computer servers to avoid detection, so it is not clear whether the call was actually made from Singapore.
He said he did not know why the message recorded in English was necessary.
“Our intelligence showed phone-scam syndicates recruited mainlanders and Taiwanese to cheat, and they do not speak English,” he said. But he said he would monitor this.
READ MORE: Phone scammers devise new racket to cheat Hongkongers
Earlier this month, telephone fraudsters posed as representatives from the judiciary, prompting the judiciary to issue a clarification.
Previously, telephone con artists posed as staff from courier firms or officials from Beijing’s liaison office in Hong Kong to make scam calls.
Victims were typically told that a parcel they mailed out was problematic and in violation of mainland laws, and the calls were then transferred to someone who claimed to be a mainland police officer. Victims were told they had to prove their willingness to cooperate by transferring money to a mainland bank account.
Between July and November, 434 people fell victim to telephone scams and were conned out of HK$242 million. One victim, veteran soprano Li Yuanrong, 73, was duped out of more than HK$20 million.
In October, mainland, Hong Kong and Taiwan police cracked two phone-scam syndicates based in Indonesia and Cambodia and arrested 431 people from the mainland and Taiwan. The Indonesian gang allegedly duped Hongkongers out of HK$118 million last year.
http://m.scmp.com/news/hong-kong/law-crime/article/1902754/phone-scammers-target-english-speakers-hong-kong-calls
