11 mainland Chinese students at Hong Kong university swindled out of HK$8.4 million, police chief says
Hong Kong Free Press
Eleven mainland Chinese students at a Hong Kong university were swindled out of HK$8.4 million late last year, the city’s police chief has said, pointing to a knowledge gap.
Speaking at a ceremony for a scheme to protect mainland Chinese students in Hong Kong last Saturday, Commissioner for Police Raymond Siu said the force had a responsibility to protect “gangpiao” – recent mainland Chinese immigrants to the city. He added that police should help them integrate into society, as they were “fresh blood” for Hong Kong’s future development.
Crime Prevention Office.
Citing recent statistics, he said there were some 20,000 to 30,000 mainland Chinese students enrolled at local universities, adding that the figure was expected to grow.
Siu said there had been 15 cases of mainland Chinese students falling victim to scams last October and November. Of those, 11 students at a university in the southern New Territories were scammed out of a total HK$8.4 million.
Sha Tin’s Chinese University of Hong Kong, located within that area, said in an emailed reply to HKFP on Monday that it “has always been concerned about the incidents of students from Hong Kong’s tertiary institutions falling victims to phone/online fraud”.
The university added that it had produced a video to raise awareness of scams, distributed information leaflets on campus, invited the police force to give talks on scam prevention, and collaborated with non-local student organisations to disseminate relevant information.
“The University would like to once again remind students not to trust phone calls and emails from unknown sources, and to refrain from disclosing personal and account information or transferring money to a third party’s account without due caution. Instead, students should report such incidents to the police for assistance or seek advice from their friends, family members, or the University if they have any suspicions,” the statement read.
HKFP has also reached out to the Hang Seng University of Hong Kong – the other university under the purview of the New Territories South police headquarters – for comment.
Officers cited a case last October that saw a 19-year-old student from Liaoning province end his own life after a scammer who posed as a public security officer duped him out of HK$2 million.
Knowledge gap
At the same event, New Territories South Regional Crime Prevention Office Senior Inspector Ho Ho-ting said that some mainland Chinese students provided their bank account details or transferred money to scammers as they were unaware that China’s Public Security Bureau did not have extraterritorial powers, and tended to be “more obedient” to authorities.
He also said that some did not want to worry their parents, and that a language barrier also posed difficulties.
“Their problem-solving abilities are limited, especially in terms of language. When encountering language barriers, it is difficult to distinguish between what’s real and what isn’t. The care of university staff and other students, as well as anti-fraud information from the police… have become very important,” he said.
The regional police office introduced the protection scheme early last year, opening chat groups in text messaging apps such as WeChat to create a direct line of communication with police officers.
“From time to time, we’ll get messages in those groups from students or other members saying they’ve received a phishing text, and they’ll send it our way and ask whether it’s real or fake,” said Chief Inspector Chan Wing-kwan of the New Territories South headquarters.
Through relatively informal interactions, police officers would be able to intervene efficiently and prevent students falling victim to scams, Chan said.
| 💡If you are in need of support, please call: The Samaritans 2896 0000 (24-hour, multilingual), Suicide Prevention Centre 2382 0000 or the government mental health hotline on 18111. The Hong Kong Society of Counselling and Psychology provides a WhatsApp hotline in English and Chinese: 6218 1084. See also: HKFP’s comprehensive guide to mental health services in Hong Kong. |
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