Since September onwards, 21 Mainland students studying at the University of Hong Kong (HKU) have lost over HK$5 million, having fallen prey to online scams. Read more to learn about common tactics of scammers and how to avoid them.
Common Tactics of Online Scammers
The Telephone Scam
According to the University, 96% of the cases were led by impersonators of “Mainland officials.” Hong Kong Police also uploaded an interview video with one of the victims, who lost approximately HK$1 million, about the whole scamming process.
From the video, the student told the police that everything began with a strange call. She was told that her phone number was about to be suspended. Owing to the unintelligibility of the caller, she transferred to the human operator. The purported “official” told her that her number had been involved in a criminal case, but she figured out that it was not her number. Subsequently, they brought her to report to what they “claimed” to be the police. She chose to believe the man on the face-time call as the “police officer” had shown their face in police uniform on the camera and his ability to reveal her personal information, even showing the picture of her identity card.
Afterwards, she agreed to send them money as the pretext of court bail and followed their instructions to ask her parents for money. The procedure included transferring money through the bank, converting it into cryptocurrency at the Bitcoin ATM, and eventually handing over to them. Throughout the process, they have manipulated her by demanding her to answer to their Telegram calls all the time.
“I was very scared and afraid to tell my parents or file a report to the police because I thought it might negatively affect them,” said the student in the video. “If anyone encounters such a situation, I hope they can be brave to report it.”
The WhatsApp Scam
Another way of online scams takes the form of WhatsApp. The hacker typically sends a phishing message telling the user that their account will expire soon if they do not verify their account via the given link. If you tap into the link, you will be directed to a “fake” customer service page, where you will then be told to follow the instructions to fill out the information and enter the verification code sent to your phone. The hacker will then have obtained enough information to take over your account.
Mona Yan, a mainland student studying at HKU had encountered a similar scam at the start of 2024.
“I rarely use WhatsApp,” said Yan. “I am not very familiar with the app. When I logged into my account after the winter break, I was told to verify my account. I blindly followed the instructions since I was afraid to miss the messages from my team for the group project.”
A couple of days later, one of Yan’s friends Jasmine Zhang received messages from Yan. It has mocked Yan’s ways of speech to borrow money from Zhang. They communicated with each other about it in person and realised Mona’s account had been hacked.
The messages were full of loopholes. Yan normally uses WeChat instead of WhatsApp to communicate with Jasmine. Moreover, the message was a mix of traditional and simplified Chinese, on top of using punctuations and emojis between sentences, which was out of line with the way Yan typically texted her friends. Lastly, the name and number of the bank account belonged to a stranger.
“Although I am lucky this time to see through the scam,” said Yan. “I am still holding a suspicious attitude toward the app so I never check my account now. I am afraid it will be hacked again and used to scam other friends of mine.”
Dos and Don’ts with the Scams
To enhance the education of anti-scams among students, HKU has displayed posters and banners all around the campus in simplified Chinese, bilingual videos, and more. To sum up the gist of the University’s anti-scams efforts, here are the five things you must know.
Never believe phone calls that claim they are “Mainland officials/public security officers”
No matter how much of your personal information has been shown to you, you should immediately hang up the phone. Mainland public security, law enforcement, and government officials will never call public individuals directly.
Always verify suspicious numbers with “Scameter“
The official website “Scameter” and the “Scameter+” mobile app are reliable sources to check the validity of unknown numbers. If you are suspicious about the call, follow the “Three dos”: Hang up, Verify, and Get help using the applications.
Send public messages to tell people in your contacts when your account has been hacked.
When you suspect someone is using your account to disseminate weird messages, you should make use of mass messages, Instagram stories, or WeChat Moment to inform people around you of potential hackers, preventing them from being scammed under your name.
Inform friends when receiving “weird” messages from them.
Tell your friends in person or via a different social media platform that they should take extra precaution to your account when they receive messages in questionable tones asking them for private information or borrowing money. This will minimise the harm to both your hacked account and the accounts on his/her contact list.
Be brave to contact the Police when you are in or hard to get out of a scam.
If you realise you that you are being scammed, but are not sure about what to do next: keep calm, be brave, and contact the Police’s “Anti-Scam Helpline 18222”.