Opinion | Society's shared responsibility to prevent students from scams
By Johnny Ng
Cybercrime is becoming increasingly rampant, with university students from the mainland frequently targeted by online scams. Recently, an 18-year-old girl from the mainland lost HK$9.2 million, and news emerged yesterday that another mainland student at the University of Hong Kong was scammed out of approximately HK$1.8 million. Scammers are using increasingly sophisticated tactics. In the long run, Hong Kong society not only needs to raise awareness about fraud prevention but also must improve the mechanisms for handling fraud crimes. Financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and social media platforms should all bear corresponding responsibilities in fraud prevention. The Hong Kong government is making significant efforts to combat online fraud, an encouraging situation. In the future, all sectors must work together to enhance awareness among young students to prevent them from falling into scams.
Reports indicate that the University of Hong Kong sent an email to students last week, revealing that over 60 students had encountered scams in recent months, resulting in total losses of HK$60 million, averaging HK$1 million per person. The university has required students to complete a fraud prevention questionnaire to mitigate risks; otherwise, they will be banned from entering the library.
Online scams are pervasive, and the tactics employed by scammers have reached extreme levels, necessitating further measures to address them.
Despite the government's efforts through law enforcement actions, preventive measures, and promotional activities—including campus seminars targeting students from the mainland—online scams continue to rise. According to police statistics, there were 19,897 reported scams in the first half of 2024, an increase of 1,154 cases (6.2%) compared to 18,743 cases during the same period in 2023. Among these, 62.3% involved online scams, resulting in losses amounting to billions of HKD.
In Hong Kong, the situation has worsened to the point where there is a scam reported every 14 minutes, indicating a very serious problem that not only causes significant financial losses for victims but also emotional distress.
Verification of Advertisers' Identities to Prevent Scam Advertisements
Telemarketing scams have infiltrated campuses, affecting even university students. I believe this issue is not simple; society should reflect on whether the losses incurred by victims should be solely borne by them. Recently, a survey conducted by the Hong Kong Youth Student Power revealed that nearly 80% of respondents believe that in scam cases, victims should not bear all losses, and they pointed out that financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and social media platforms should also share the responsibility for preventing scams.
Particularly on social media, a significant amount of information and advertisements with potential scam elements are circulating online, easily misleading consumers into falling into scams. For example, in the JPEX incident, the fraud prevention measures of social media platforms were severely inadequate, leading to 2,000 victims and a total amount involved of HK$1.3 billion, highlighting the shortcomings of social media platforms in advertising vetting and user verification. I believe social media platforms have a responsibility to strengthen the verification of advertisers' identities and legitimacy and to prevent user accounts from being compromised.
Additionally, telecommunications companies should enhance the identity verification process for SIM cards, incorporating biometric technologies like facial recognition to prevent criminals from registering SIM cards with forged documents. Financial institutions must establish real-time fraud monitoring systems so that when protected accounts experience a large number of withdrawals in a short period, banks must immediately freeze transactions and notify customers. They should also provide comprehensive real-time notification services, including alerts for new device logins, high-risk activity warnings, and notifications for all outbound payment transactions, as well as offering 24/7 reporting channels to allow consumers to quickly stop unauthorized transactions.
Review of SIM Card Verification Processes
In the long term, Hong Kong society must not only raise fraud prevention awareness but also improve mechanisms for handling fraud crimes. I, on this issue, suggest implementing a "fraud loss liability framework," requiring financial institutions, telecommunications companies, and social media platforms to collectively share responsibilities for combating fraud, with reasonable loss distribution based on the level of negligence of each party involved in fraud incidents.
In fact, Singapore implemented a similar fraud loss liability framework in December last year, and Australia has established a "fraud prevention framework." These international experiences demonstrate that a multi-party collaborative fraud prevention mechanism is both feasible and necessary. As an international financial center, Hong Kong needs to build a comprehensive fraud prevention system to protect consumer rights.
To effectively combat online fraud, it cannot rely solely on police efforts; rather, there needs to be cooperation across the whole of Hong Kong, involving multiple government departments, sectors, and levels. This is a long-term battle. Chief Executive John Lee criticized the scammers in a question-and-answer session of his policy address last year, stating that those who commit fraud are akin to devils, emphasizing that the government will relentlessly pursue any criminals and stand with victims to raise public awareness about scams. I is encouraged by the government's efforts to combat online fraud, and believes that in the future, all sectors must unite to better protect the rights of citizens.
(Source: Wen Wei Po)
The author is a LegCo Member and a famous tech entrepreneur.
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