LCQ13: Deception cases on social media platforms
5.7.2023

Following is a question by Prof the Hon William Wong and a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Tang Ping-keung, in the Legislative Council today (July 5): Question: It is learnt that there has been an upward trend in the number of online deception cases, and quite a number of them involve online social media platforms. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council: (1) whether it has compiled statistics on the number of deception cases involving social media platforms in the past three years, with a breakdown by the type of deception cases; among such deception cases, of the top three social media platforms involving the highest number of deception cases and the largest amount of defrauded money; if such information is not available, whether it will compile such statistics; (2) of the number of fake accounts that the Police requested social media platforms to remove in each of the past three years; whether it has compiled statistics on the number of fake accounts whose holders reopened accounts using other identities after such fake accounts had been removed mandatorily; if it has not compiled such statistics, whether it will request social media platforms to compile relevant statistics regularly in order to identify suspicious accounts for preventing fraudsters from committing deception again; (3) whether it knows the number of online deception cases involving social media platforms in the past three years for which compensation was made by third parties (e.g. the social media platforms or banks involved), and the amount of compensation involved; (4) whether any legislation is currently in place to require the self-regulation of social media platforms, including taking the initiative to remove fraudulent advertisements, block fake accounts or accounts suspected of engaging in fraudulent activities, and mark suspicious accounts, etc.; if not, whether it will consider enacting legislation on relevant matters to regulate social media platforms, and penalise the platforms which fail to discharge their obligations in accordance with the law; (5) whether it will study enacting legislation to require social media platforms to take up due responsibilities when their users are deceived by advertisements and fraudulent accounts on the platforms, including making compensation to persons who have been deceived; and (6) of the measures currently in place to ensure information security on social media platforms, with a view to making every effort to prevent the occurrence of deception cases? Reply: President, Deception is a serious offence. Regardless of how it is committed, stern enforcement actions will be taken as long as there are illegal activities involved. Any person who commits the offence of fraud under section 16A of the Theft Ordinance (Cap. 210) is liable to imprisonment for up to 14 years, while any person charged with "obtaining property by deception" under section 17 of the same Ordinance is liable to imprisonment for up to 10 years. In addition, any person charged with "dealing with property known or believed to represent proceeds of indictable offences" under section 25 of the Organized and Serious Crimes Ordinance (Cap. 455) for proceeds of deception is liable to maximum penalties of 14 years' imprisonment and a fine of $5 million. With the global trend of Internet proliferation, many countries and regions have seen a significant increase in deception cases in recent years. The Police will continue to enhance public awareness and combat all types of deception through stepped-up law enforcement measures, publicity and education, multi-agency co-operation, intelligence analysis and cross-boundary collaboration. In consultation with the Police, the reply to the Member's question is as follows: (1) The total numbers of deception cases and the numbers of different online deception cases in the past three years are at Annex 1. The figures in recent years indicate that over 70 per cent of the deception cases are online frauds. Scammers' defrauding tricks involve the use of email, fake websites, fake links, social media platforms, messaging applications, etc. There are also cases in which more than one channel is involved. The Police do not and have no plan to compile statistics of deception cases and the amounts involved by breakdown of individual social media platforms. (2) In the course of carrying out their duties, the Police will, for the prevention and detection of crime, request information or seek co-operation from relevant persons or organisations (including information and communications technology companies). Among others, the Police may request Internet platforms to remove posts or other information (such as videos, texts and images). Examples include removal of content suspected to involve fraud, fraudulent accounts opened under pretences to defraud others, etc. In the past three years, the number of requests made by the Police to local and overseas online service providers for removing information that has involved crimes are at Annex 2. The Police do not maintain breakdown of requests made in relation to deception cases and fraudulent accounts. (3) to (5) The Internet is not an unreal world that is beyond the law. As far as the existing legislation in Hong Kong is concerned, most of the laws enacted to prevent crimes in the real world are in principle applicable to the online world. Members of the public have to act legally and responsibly when using the Internet. The Government will take stringent enforcement action against any person making inappropriate speech online that involves criminal elements. The Police have all along adopted a multi-agency approach to maintain a close and effective liaison mechanism with social media platforms. Should crime-related information be found on a social media platform, the Police will take the initiative to contact the platform concerned such that timely action can be taken to prevent social media platforms from being exploited as media and tools for committing crimes. Besides, social media platforms should fulfill their corporate social responsibility by establishing codes of conduct, terms of service and privacy policies to regulate the content of information posted by users on the platforms, and to prevent users from inappropriately disseminating information on the platforms. The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) has been working with the Police and the banking sector to enhance information sharing with a view to tackling deception cases and relevant mule account networks. In particular, the Police already have a mechanism in place, under which bank account information will be provided to the banks for follow-up actions if Police investigations reveal that such accounts are involved in deception cases. To further combat crimes, the Fraud and Money Laundering Intelligence Taskforce (FMLIT) was established by the Police in 2017 with the support of the HKMA. The number of participating retail banks has increased from 10 initially to 28 at the end of June 2023. Since the establishment of the FMLIT, through enhanced information sharing between the Police and the banks and applying data analytics, the banks have identified over 21 000 previously unknown mule accounts and have taken prompt actions such as restricting further fund transfers to or from those accounts and supporting Police investigation. In respect of minimising losses and claiming compensation, the round-the-clock Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) operated by the Police has established a Stop-Payment Mechanism with the banking sector to render timely assistance to the general public in handling suspected deception cases and to intercept defrauded money. In 2022, with the assistance of the banking sector, over $1.3 billion worth of defrauded money were successfully intercepted under the mechanism, which minimised the victims' losses. Besides, upon handing down judgments, the court will issue orders to direct the handling of lost properties or cash involved which were seized by the Police as exhibits during the investigation. If the court is satisfied that an exhibit belongs solely to a particular victim, it may issue an order for its return. In addition, the victims may consider claiming compensation for their losses through civil actions. If necessary, the victims may obtain the documents relating to their cases from the Police to take forward such procedures. The Police do not and have no plan to compile information of third party compensation. (6) The Police are committed to combating all types of fraud. They take intelligence-led enforcement actions and actively enhance collaboration with stakeholders through a multi-agency approach. A multi channel, extensive publicity strategy is adopted to heighten public awareness of different types of fraud as well as the risks associated with computers, cyber security, use of the Internet and social media. On the enforcement front, in the first five months of this year, the Police, through intelligence-led operations, successfully dismantled a number of scam syndicates involved in over 2 780 cases of "online shopping fraud", "phishing fraud", "investment fraud" and "telephone fraud", and arrested over 1 460 persons. In terms of publicity, in August 2021, the Police launched the "CyberDefender" website ( cyberdefender.hk/ ) for public access. The website aims to increase the public's knowledge on information security risks, online fraud and objectionable materials so as to prevent them from falling into online traps. The Police also launched a one-stop scam and pitfall search engine "Scameter" and its application "Scameter+" in September last year and February this year respectively. The public can input suspicious platform account names, bank account numbers, phone numbers, email addresses, etc., to assess the risk of fraud and cyber security, through which they could distinguish, detect, curb and strengthen the prevention of fraudulent activities and hence minimise their financial losses. "Scameter" would also provide fraud prevention tips to raise public awareness of the latest modus operandi of various types of technology crimes. These applications have recorded around a million searches so far, 16.2 per cent of the results indicated to be at risk, amount which 60 per cent are confirmed to be connected with fraud. In addition, if members of the public suspect that they have encountered a deception case, they may call the helpline 18222 to make enquiries and seek assistance from the ADCC operated by the Police 24 hours a day. The Police will continue to strengthen co-operation with relevant stakeholders. By organising different types of publicity and educational activities, the Police will reach out to the community through different channels to enhance public awareness of the risks associated with the use of social media. At the same time, the Police will step up publicity and education in order to combat online frauds on various fronts.