The Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the Hong Kong Association of Banks on Wednesday launched the Anti-Scam Consumer Protection Charter 2.0 to include more financial institutions and merchants to guard against credit card scams and other digital fraud.
Over 230 financial and merchant institutions, representing several million clients, members and platform users, joined the Charter 2.0. Participating organizations committed not to send any instant electronic messages with embedded links to customers for acquiring personal information online.
They also committed to raising customer awareness of credit card scams and other digital fraud, providing contact information to enable customers to make enquiries, and giving relevant training to their frontline staff to handle customer enquiries and convey anti-scam education messages.
“Complaints about unauthorized credit card transactions dropped 30 percent from 478 in the first half of last year, before the launch of the Charter 1.0 in June last year, to 332 in the second half of last year, showing the incremental effectiveness of the charter and other measures,” HKMA Chief Executive Eddie Yue Wai-man said at the launch ceremony.
HKMA Deputy Chief Executive Arthur Yuen Kwok-hang added: “We received more than 1,200 complaints about fraudulent banking services last year, more than double year-on-year. The situation is serious. Since the launch of the Charter 1.0 last year, there has been a slight reduction in the number of fraud cases observed.”
The Charter 2.0 has won the support of the other three financial regulatory bodies in Hong Kong, namely, the Insurance Authority, the Mandatory Provident Fund Schemes Authority and the Securities and Futures Commission.
“At this stage, over 80 licensed corporations, representing 4 million customers, participated in the anti-scam consumer protection charter, accounting for over 80 percent of active customers,” SFC CEO Julia Leung Fung-yee said at the ceremony.
According to Hong Kong Police Force figures, over 39,000 fraud cases were reported last year in Hong Kong, accounting for some 50 percent of total reported crime cases. Eighty percent of these fraud cases were online cases, while 10 percent of the victims of online fraud cases collectively lost HK$3.7 billion ($472 million), accounting for 30 percent of the total losses related to fraud cases. There were also 4,000 fraud cases involving phishing messages last year, accounting for 10 to 15 percent of online fraud cases.
In addition to financial organizations and regulatory bodies, the Charter 2.0 is also supported by the Airport Authority, the Consumer Council and the Travel Industry Authority, covering banking, insurance, the provident fund, the securities and futures industries, food and beverage, logistics, transport, travel and retail.
