Customer service impersonation leads phone scam surge in Hong Kong

Impersonating customer service is the “most rampant tactic” used by phone scammers, Hong Kong police have said, with the number of such frauds rising 45 per cent year on year in the first half of 2026 to 4,830 cases amid an overall decline in deception crimes.

Superintendent Kwok Ching-yee of the Commercial Crime Bureau said police received a total of 20,613 deception cases in the first half of this year, representing a slight drop of 0.7 per cent compared with the same period last year.

The total losses incurred in the cases also dropped 0.8 per cent year-on-year to HK$3.51 billion (US$447.7 million).

Although the numbers for most online scams registered a year-on-year decline, phishing scams surged by 61 per cent to 1,113 cases, while phone scams rose by 45 per cent to 4,830 cases.

Financial losses from phone scams alone reached HK$900 million in the first half of this year, 56 per cent more than the same period last year.

“Among phone scams, impersonating customer service was the most rampant tactic, accounting for nearly half of the cases. In other words, in the first half of this year, one citizen fell victim to a phishing scam every four hours,” she said.