“We saw a gradual drop in cases after police intensified enforcement and publicity efforts [since late last year]. But we discovered cases showed signs of a resurgence recently,” Senior Superintendent Leung Oi-lam told a press briefing on Friday.

Police noted that from last August to December there were 3,137 cases involving the hijacking of messaging accounts, with scammers stealing more than HK$65 million.

The number of cases a month had fallen to double digits towards the end of 2023, prompted by police stepping up efforts to combat scammers.

But cases have gradually increased again this year, rising from 99 in January to 207 in February, before reaching 558 last month. All but one of the incidents in March involved WhatsApp accounts, with the other linked to the Telegram platform.

The single biggest loss was recorded in February, when a businessman in the dining industry was tricked into transferring HK$1.48 million to scammers.

“The methods adopted by online fraudsters recently are actually nothing new,” the bureau’s Chief Inspector Leung Yee-tak said.

He said scammers usually pretended to be customer services for WhatsApp, sending phishing messages with fake websites that asked users to submit their phone numbers and inputting a code granting the swindlers access.

Once the swindlers had access they would target people on the users’ contact lists, posing as their relatives or friends asking for money and hijacking more accounts to repeat the cycle, he said.

“Police have also noticed that the fake websites have undergone multiple variations due to the low cost of registering a domain,” Senior Superintendent Leung said, adding more than 300 fraudulent links were found in the first quarter.

Gan Kok-tin, from the cybersecurity and privacy practice at accounting firm PwC, said scammers could also access users’ accounts if victims logged onto fake websites appearing on search engine results with the “sponsor” tag.

Gan, who took part in the police briefing, said differences between WhatsApp’s real page and fake ones included where the logo was placed and missing words on the phoney sites or their link text.

Fraudsters pose as HKMA to part Hongkongers from their money via WhatsApp

Chief Inspector Leung said: “There are actually no specific targets by these scammers. They just send out mass messages. So if victims are not careful enough, they will fall prey to this kind of scam.”

He added that most victims had told police they had little knowledge about some of the deceptive techniques employed by fraudsters.

Asked whether anyone had been arrested for the cybercrimes in the past three months, Leung said the force had no such data. He also pointed to the low detection rates for technology-related crimes over the past 10 years, ranging from 7.6 per cent to 17.4 per cent.

He said the main reason for the low detection rate was that many of the websites and social media platforms residents commonly use involved overseas service providers, which had not been able to provide sufficient help to police investigations.

“Police will continue to engage in close collaboration with law enforcement agencies and stakeholders from various jurisdictions, focusing on intelligence-led initiatives to undertake coordinated cross-border operations,” Leung said.

Hong Kong police warn WhatsApp scams on the rise after 130 people duped in 1 week

The chief inspector urged residents to remain vigilant and make good use of anti-fraud tools provided by the force, including the “Scameter” search engine and mobile app, to check for suspicious or fraudulent activity.

The Scameter mobile app has been downloaded more than 390,000 times with over 3 million searches, according to police.

Gan from PwC urged residents to regularly check the devices linked to their WhatsApp accounts, avoid using public free Wi-fi and stay alert for websites that appeared with a “sponsor” tag on search engine results.

WhatsApp scams first came to the attention of police in November 2017, when fewer than 10 cases were reported in the city.