As scammers get more brazen, scammer claims to be Hong Kong deputy police chief and demands compensation

Scammers have become more brazen in their impersonations targeting Hong Kong victims, authorities have warned, with some fraudsters posing as deputy police commissioners and officers from the force’s own anti-cheating unit demanding a “payment”.

The force revealed on Monday it had received 734 reports of fraudsters posing as officers in the first nine months of the year; This was an 8.1 percent increase over the 679 reports recorded in the same period last year. It was also stated that losses in the first nine months of the year reached HK$788 million (US$101 million).

Last week, police received a report that a fraudster posing as Deputy Commissioner Johnson Chan Joon-sun accused the victim of committing a crime and instructed him to hand over HK$250,000 as a “loan”.

Senior Inspector Wan Pik-yee said fraudsters often add victims to a WhatsApp chat group, change their name and display picture to the Anti-Fraud Coordination Center logo and impersonate law enforcement officials.

“Scammers will accuse victims of involvement in money laundering or other crimes and ask them to provide personal information such as identification numbers, bank account details and money transfers as collateral,” he said.

Wan also warned that officers at the center would never ask residents to disclose such information and would not request money transfers or meetings at locations other than police stations.