179 Hongkongers lose over RM950,000 in online shopping scams over one week

Almost 180 Hongkongers lost a total of HK$1.6mil (RM959,700) in online shopping scams over a week after being tricked into buying handbags, concert tickets and health supplements that they never received.

Police on Friday revealed the figures on their CyberDefender Facebook page to remind residents to exercise caution when buying International Women’s Day gifts on the internet.

The force received 179 reports of online shopping scams last week.

“HK$250,000 (RM149,953) was lost in 46 cases related to the purchase of concert tickets,” police said, adding that scammers usually offered ticket sales through auction mobile applications.

“After transferring the money, victims were then blocked from accessing the app.”

Another 23 victims lost HK$30,000 (RM17,994) after being duped into buying health supplement products.

“Fake web pages selling health supplement products have emerged recently. Swindlers usually offer discounted prices to attract and deceive buyers,” police warned.

An additional 18 online fraud cases involving HK$300,000 (RM179,943) in designer handbag sale scams were also reported.

Police said scammers pretended to sell handbags on online auction platforms with low prices to lure victims.

The victims discovered they had been conned when they did not receive the goods and were unable to contact the “sellers”.

Police remind online shoppers to look for the seller’s information before making a payment, as well as pay attention to negative reviews, the web page’s creation date and name changes.

The force warned that scammers also posed as shoppers and used bounced cheques or bogus cash deposit receipts to cheat.

In Hong Kong, obtaining property by deception carries a maximum penalty of 10 years in jail.

Officers handled 8,950 cases of online shopping fraud last year, a 2.5% increase from 8,735 cases logged in 2022.

But the amount lost rose by 157% to HK$190.5mil (RM114.26mil) last year from HK$74.1mil (RM44.44mil) the year before.

Police advised the public to use the force’s Scameter search engine, accessible through the CyberDefender website, to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.

The search engine has information to help users identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts, mobile phone numbers and IP addresses. – South China Morning Post