Hong Kong's enhanced e-reporting system for internet fraud
On 19 September 2022, the Hong Kong Police Force announced its upgraded e-reporting system for internet crimes and frauds, which aims to improve the processing and analysing of cyber crimes.
With cyber crimes and frauds on the rise in Hong Kong, and the number of reports of such crimes almost doubling in the last few years, the Hong Kong Police Force have enhanced their e-reporting system and set up a new department dedicated to e-crime – the e-Crime Processing and Analysis Hub (the e-Hub).
The e-Report Centre can be found here, with additional information requested for "Technology Crime and Deception".
This improved reporting system is important for three main reasons:
- Victims of cyber crimes statistically prefer to report incidents online, rather than reporting via a more 'traditional' method such as attending a police station. As it is important to act fast with internet crimes, it is advisable that victims send all relevant information in their knowledge to the Police so that they can act quickly to attempt the interception of suspicious transactions and bank accounts.
- The reporting system now allows victims to provide the Police with more information including: specific details regarding the amount of money and bank account details involved; links to suspicious websites; up to 30 file attachments such as screenshots of conversations on instant messaging platforms; and information on the suspected criminals such as aliases, contact details, social media accounts and bank accounts.
- As the Police have found that the majority of internet scams can be related in 'clusters', the system intends to allow the Police to connect crimes which are linked in some way (such as having the same source or 'money mules') and to refer those crimes to the same unit for investigation. This is hopefully facilitated by the enhanced system which captures more and more detailed information on e-crime, which will be assigned to an investigating team as soon as possible.
The e-Hub will work alongside the existing Anti-Deception Coordination Centre, to identify trends and persistent bad actors. The upgraded e-reporting system and e-Hub are part of the Hong Kong Police Force's renewed commitment to stamp out technology crimes.
We regularly advise clients on cyber crimes and frauds, as well as asset recovery. For further information on this topic, please contact Jonathan Crompton at RPC by telephone (+852 2216 7000) or email (jonathan.crompton@rpc.com.hk).