The New Territories South Regional Crime Unit of the police detected a series of phishing SMS scams. The swindlers faked links to the redemption web pages of telecommunications companies, falsely claiming to provide welcome gifts for account opening, and defrauded credit card information for shopping scams. A 19-year-old was arrested A male lift mechanic, involved in 11 similar cases since the beginning of this month, involving about 300,000 yuan, is being detained for investigation.
The police believe that the case involves a syndicated crime, and it is not ruled out that more people will be arrested later.
Li Junlong, Senior Inspector of the New Territories South Regional Crime Unit, said that recently, it was discovered that the victim received a phishing text message with a link to a fake telecommunications company point redemption page, falsely claiming to provide a welcome gift for account opening, and asking the victim to enter credit card information at the designated link. Including credit card number, security code, expiration date, verification code, etc.
Without the owner's knowledge and loss of the credit card, the credit card was stolen to buy different products.
Chief Inspector Chen Jiaying of the Criminal Division of the New Territories South Region said that after investigation, the police found that the criminal group defrauded the victim's credit card information, bundled it into the mobile phone e-wallet, and then recruited offline users to use the relevant e-wallet to shop, and then returned the goods to the group's owner. Online processing.
The police detected a series of scams in which phishing text messages were used to defraud credit card information for shopping. The scammers first used text messages to lure the victim into clicking a hyperlink, providing credit card information, and then binding the fraudulent credit card information to the e-wallet of the fraudster's mobile phone , then use it for shopping.
(Photo by Liang Weiquan)
19-year-old "offline" youth party arrested in Tai Po was recruited to commit crimes
The intelligence team of the New Territories South Regional Criminal Division conducted investigations, including checking CCTV footage and intelligence analysis, and identified the 19-year-old male suspect.
The police carried out an ambush operation yesterday (12) and arrested the suspect when he committed a crime in a supermarket in Mayfair Bay, Tai Po. They found cash coupons worth 12,000 yuan and 3 mobile phones on him; during the operation, the police Clothes worn by the suspect at the time of the crime, a new mobile phone, bank documents and cash coupons were also seized.
The police believe that since the beginning of this month, the suspect has used the stolen credit card information to purchase electronic products and store cash coupons in various districts in Hong Kong. A total of 11 cases were involved. The total loss of the victim was about 300,000 yuan. The largest case involved more than 20,000 yuan, involving the purchase of mobile phones.
However, the police believe that the phishing text messages involved in the case were not sent by the arrested person, and are continuing to investigate and believe that more people will be arrested.
Chen Jiaying added that the arrested suspect was recruited to commit the crime at a gathering of friends, and used a single e-wallet registered with his own identity to make purchases. After each successful transaction, he could receive a "dividend" of a few percentages of the price of the product involved; the credit cards involved in the case came from 2 to 3 The issuing bank, but the actual number remains to be investigated.
Chen Jiaying also pointed out that the products purchased by scammers are mostly electronic products or cash gift certificates from supermarkets, health product chain stores, etc., which are easier to change hands.
The police cracked down on a series of scams in which phishing text messages were used to defraud credit card information for shopping, and exhibited the evidence in the case.
From the left in the picture are Senior Inspector Lai Chun-lung of the New Territories South Regional Crime Division, Chief Inspector Chen Jiaying of the Crime Division of the New Territories South Regional Crime Division, and Inspector Wen Bier of the Crime Prevention Office.
(Photo by Liang Weiquan)
During the investigation of this case, the police found that the deception tactics had changed recently.
Inspector Wen Bi of the Crime Prevention Office said that in the past phishing scams, scammers usually pretended to be shopping platforms or logistics companies, falsely claiming that the victim’s account was abnormal, or pretending to have a package, and charged a surcharge to defraud the victim’s information; recently The swindlers then pretended to be the point redemption website of the telecommunications company, sending out phishing messages falsely claiming that the victim’s points were about to expire, and asked to click on the link to enter the fake website and provide credit card information.
Police remind members of the public not to log in to any suspicious websites through hyperlinks in SMS messages, and not to enter personal or credit card information on websites or apps from unknown sources.
(Photo by Liang Weiquan)
Wen Bier said that the New Territories South Region received more than 190 phishing scams last year, an increase of 110 cases year-on-year, involving a total of more than 2.9 million yuan.
She pointed out that the URL domain codes of the hyperlinks attached to the phishing text messages are completely different from those of the real website, and citizens can spot them with a little attention; citizens can also click on different buttons on the website to check whether there is any abnormality in the link, or whether it will be taken to different sites.
She reminded the public not to log in to any suspicious websites through hyperlinks in text messages, and not to enter personal or credit card information on websites or apps from unknown sources; Enter suspicious phone numbers or URLs into the "Anti-Scam Video Device" (https://cyberdefender.hk) of the "CyberDefender" website for verification.
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