HK and Singapore police collaborate on anti-fraud videos to bolster fraud prevention efforts
Due to the increase in fraud cases, police forces in Hong Kong and Singapore have teamed up to create a series of anti-fraud short videos based on real cases, aiming to raise public awareness about current scams.
Fraud cases have increased in both HK and Singapore over recent years. In the first half of this year, HK recorded 19,897 fraud cases, up 6.2% compared to the same period last year, with losses amounting to approximately HK$4.48 billion—an increase of 66.5%. Conversely, Singapore registered 26,587 fraud reports, a 16.3% rise year-on-year, with total losses of around HK$2.4 billion, marking a 24.6% growth.
Two senior officers of both police forces highlighted that, in addition to cooperating on law enforcement training and intelligence sharing, this joint initiative to produce anti-fraud videos was born out of a shared desire to innovate and find new ways to effectively communicate fraud prevention messages to the public.
For their first collaboration, the police forces focused on four types of scams: calls from friends, online romance scams, concert ticket fraud, and fake government officials.
Chan Sze-tat, Assistant Commissioner of Police in HK, said that the scripts for the videos were co-written by officers from both places via video conferencing, drawing from real-life cases. After outlining the script, the Singapore police took charge of the English dialogue, while the HK police wrote the Chinese dialogue.
Most of the cast members are police officers, with additional actors selected to match the age and background of real victims, enhancing the relatability of the videos. The four videos, each lasting between 90 seconds and two minutes, incorporate both English and Cantonese, with subtitles in Chinese and English.
Since the videos were uploaded to Facebook and Instagram starting May 30, they have garnered over 270,000 views by August.
Related News:
HK fraudsters impersonating PayMe employees sentenced to imprisonment for 24 to 56 months
Comment