Hong Kong Sees Surge in WhatsApp Account Hijacking Cases with Over HK$26 Million in Losses

Hong Kong police have recorded 150 WhatsApp account hijacking cases in the past two weeks, with total losses exceeding HK$26 million (US$3.31 million), including one in which a victim was scammed out of HK$10 million by fraudsters impersonating his father.

In a social media post on Wednesday, the force’s Cyberdefender platform warned residents against “blindly” trusting voice messages as fraudsters were using artificial intelligence (AI) to imitate loved ones after compromising their accounts.

“In WhatsApp account hijackings, scammers may use AI to fake the voices of people close to you,” the post said. Once they gain access to an account, they message the victim’s contacts to solicit money or extract personal information.

Cyberdefender, which is operated by the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau, cited a recent example in which a son believed he received a WhatsApp message from his father, even though the account had already been taken over by scammers. The scammers first sent a voice message to the victim claiming they urgently needed to transfer HK$1 million to a friend.