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Two foreign persons were jailed for two months at Eastern Magistrates’ Court today (February 25) for using a false instrument.
The Court heard that the 38-year-old foreign man and the 34-year-old foreign woman arrived in Hong Kong on December 18, 2012. They were believed to have used false documents to set up companies and open bank accounts in Hong Kong to collect crime proceeds of email scams.
Officers of Commercial Crime Bureau arrested the duo in Sheung Wan on December 20, 2012, and Police laid a holding charge against them with one count of using a false instrument on December 22, 2012. The duo were convicted of the offence today.
Police figures revealed an upward trend of corporate email scams in Hong Kong. Last year, there were a total of 430 reported cases of email scams with a total loss of HK$180 million, giving a 2.7 fold increase when compared with 2011.
A popular modus operandi of corporate email scams was that fraudsters sent out fictitious emails to victims by pretending to be their business partner who has lately changed bank account. Many victims fell prey to this scam and deposited money into fraudsters’ accounts without verifying with their business partner by phone or other means.
Police have set up a taskforce to tackle corporate email scams and call on the business sector to be alert of suspicious emails and raise their awareness in preventing the aforementioned scam, such as taking the initiative to confirm the true identities of recipients by telephone, facsimile or other means before remittances; and report suspicious cases to the Police. In addition, accounting and secretarial firms have to be vigilant when setting up companies or opening bank accounts for suspicious clients, so as to avoid being used for money laundering.
Police Report No. 310
Issued by PPRB
Ends/Monday, February 25, 2013
Issued at HKT 21:31
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