On July 16, 2024, the Hong Kong police reported that 12 expatriates have fallen victim to the latest "tech support scam" in the past two months, with fraudsters able to con HK$17 million (around $2.17 million USD) out of them.
In the most serious case, a 70-year-old retired woman named May lost HK$10 million (around $1.28 million USD) in a technical support scam last month. May said that a warning message suddenly popped up on her computer, accompanied by a loud noise. Believing her computer had been hacked, she called the phone number that appeared on the message.
A man who identified himself as "Steven" answered the call and told May that "nine hackers in five countries have hacked your computers." May was then instructed to download a remote program and provide her e-banking account details.
Another man, who called himself "Edward," claimed to be a Hong Kong police officer and told May to transfer money to a "safe bank account" to protect it. Yet another man, "Gary," asked May to take selfies and photos of her ID and credit cards.
May complied with all the requests and transferred the HK$10 million in three installments. It wasn't until her bank informed the police about the transfers that she realized she had fallen victim to a scam.
Superintendent Baron Chan Shun-ching of the cyber security and technology crime bureau explained that scammers often use online ads to make victims believe their computers have been hacked, then instruct them to transfer money to designated accounts.
"Nowadays, the operational systems that we are using in most of our computers are Western-based. The language we use is mostly English, so that's why the scammers behind the scam alerts are mostly using English," Chan said.
Senior Inspector Chan Chi-wing advised victims not to call the number on the scam alert, but instead to press and hold the Esc key or press Ctrl-Alt-Del to open the task manager and close the message. He also urged people to install antivirus software.
外籍人士遭遇殘酷電腦技術支援騙案 損失 17 百萬港元
2024 年 7 月 16 日,香港警方報告,在過去兩個月內,12 名外籍人士遭到最新的「技術支援騙案」的受害,詐騙集團共騙取了 17 百萬港元（約 217 萬美元）。
在最嚴重的一個案件中,一名 70 歲退休女士 May 在上個月損失了 10 百萬港元（約 128 萬美元）。May 說,一則警告訊息突然出現在她的電腦上,還伴有大聲的噪音。她以為電腦被黑客入侵,於是打電話給訊息上顯示的號碼。
一個自稱「史提文」的男子接聽了電話,告訴 May「有 9 名黑客從 5 個國家入侵了妳的電腦」。May 被指示下載一個遠程程式,並提供她的網上銀行帳戶信息。
另一個自稱「艾德華」的男子聲稱是香港警察,叫 May 把錢轉到一個「安全的銀行帳戶」以保護它。還有一個名叫「加里」的男子要求 May 拍攝自拍照和身份證以及信用卡照片。
May 照做了所有要求,並分三次轉帳了 10 百萬港元。直到銀行通知警方這筆轉帳,她才意識到自己中了圈套。
網絡安全及科技罪案調查科的警司陳順正解釋,騙徒們通常會利用網絡廣告,使受害者相信他們的電腦被黑客入侵,然後指示他們轉錢到指定的帳戶。
「現在我們大多數電腦使用的操作系統是西方的,我們使用的語言也主要是英語,所以這些詐騙集團背後的騙局警告大多是用英語。」陳警司說。
高級督察陳智榮建議受害者不要致電警告訊息上的號碼,而是按住 Esc 鍵或按 Ctrl-Alt-Del 打開任務管理器來關閉訊息。他還敦促人們安裝防毒軟件。
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