Police arrest transnational phone scammers from Hong Kong

Police said on Saturday they had arrested 11 people they say used Hong Kong as a base to carry out phone scams by posing as customer service representatives.

Police said the suspects, including six Malaysians, are linked to an international network responsible for the theft of HK$61 million in more than 400 fraud schemes since April.

The arrests came after officers searched four offices in San Po Kong and Kowloon Bay.

The suspects, aged between 20 and 67, are suspected of complicity in fraud, use of false instruments and money laundering.

The locals would be responsible for tasks such as renting the centres and providing a large number of local prepaid SIM cards to the syndicate.

During the raids, 87 model pool devices, 15 computers and more than 80,000 prepaid SIM cards were seized.

Chief Inspector Lee Chun-man of the Cyber ​​Security and Technology Crime Bureau said surveillance cameras had been installed at the centres.

“It is believed that the cameras allowed senior members of the syndicate to monitor the work and performance of workers,” he said.

Lee pointed out that the Malaysian suspects came to Hong Kong as tourists and were paid between HK$10,000 and HK$16,000 per month.

“In addition to being responsible for using forged identification documents or travel documents to register SIM cards, their duties also included managing the modem pool devices by changing SIM cards in the devices 24 hours a day, ensuring that the telecommunications network could be operational 24 hours a day,” police said.

Lee also said that three of the Malaysian suspects allegedly used computer software to change their passports and the identity cards of others between May and August this year to complete real name registration for at least 300 SIM cards.