Hong Kong police chief reports surge in phone scams, orders telecoms to block VoIP numbers
Hong Kong police recorded 68,015 crimes in first nine months of 2026, up 2.1 per cent, with fraud accounting for 51 per cent. Phone scams surpassed e-commerce as the top fraud category, prompting police to demand emergency suspension of VoIP numbers used by syndicates.
Hong Kong police commissioner Monday Yam said the city recorded 68,015 crimes in the first nine months of 2026, up 2.1 per cent year on year. Fraud accounted for 34,679 cases, or 51 per cent of all crime, rising 7.9 per cent, with losses increasing 6.7 per cent to HK$6.02 billion.
Speaking at a Southern District District Council meeting, Yam said phone scams had overtaken online shopping fraud as the most serious category, with nearly 10,000 cases, or about 30 per cent of all fraud. Losses from phone scams reached HK$1.94 billion.
The commissioner said phone scams had surged recently, with more than 3,900 cases recorded in August and September, 80 per cent of which involved fake customer service calls. Police analysis of victims' phone records showed most scam calls originated from local numbers.
Police discovered that people were buying SIM cards at retail outlets, registering them online with real names, then handing them over to fraud syndicates. Currently, renting or selling SIM cards does not constitute an offence, and authorities plan to amend the law to address the loophole.
Yam added that fraud syndicates were exploiting vulnerabilities in Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) services. The share of scams using VoIP numbers rose from 10 per cent to 30 per cent in August and September. These calls do not display '+852' regardless of where they originate, misleading recipients into believing they are from Hong Kong. Police have demanded that telecom operators urgently suspend the affected numbers and have shared methods to identify suspicious users to help the industry tighten controls.