Hong Kong banks launch hotline to fight back against torrent of phone scams

All retail banks in Hong Kong have set up hotlines for customers to verify the identities of their employees in a bid to battle a flood of phone scam cases.

Banking chiefs said yesterday the hotlines – some exclusively for the purpose of verifying employees’ information – would be available through the websites of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and Hong Kong Association of Banks, with each of the 21 retail banks also putting hotline information on their websites.

Phone scams have evolved and increased in recent months, with scammers posing as bank employees trying to sell products to government departments and even the central government’s liaison office. Hongkongers have handed over more than HK$182 million over the past couple of months in cases that most often involve fake mainland officials.

However, the authority’s deputy chief executive, Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang, said so far banks had received only 200 calls regarding cold-callers.

“The numbers are low – much lower than we anticipated. I think this is because there isn’t this awareness among the public yet,” said Yuen.

Yesterday, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority – which handles the retirement funds of Hongkongers – received an inquiry about a suspicious call from its hotline. The MPFA confirmed the hotline only took incoming calls and reiterated that “it never contacts people to sell MPF products or set up meetings”.

HKAB chairman George Leung Siu-kay said banks would never ask for full personal information of clients over the phone or by email.

“[A bank employee] will only ask for partial information – like the last three digits of a Hong Kong identity card number,” said Leung. “They will never ask for passwords.” He also warned against calling back phone numbers on the caller ID.

Leung said there were no statistics on the number of scam cases banks had dealt with since July, but they would “keep watch for suspicious transactions, especially among vulnerable groups”.