Hong Kong police arrest 2 men allegedly linked to HK$500,000 phishing scam

Hong Kong police have arrested two men suspected of using 110 SIM cards in a hotel room to send phishing messages, conning victims of more than HK$500,000 (US$63,766).

The force said on Saturday that the men, aged 31 and 44, were arrested last Thursday on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud.

They were allegedly linked to recent phishing scams in which fraudsters posed as delivery company staff, claiming victims had undelivered parcels, or as employees of online payment platforms, saying victims had to pay a fee to cancel an insurance plan they had mistakenly subscribed to. Victims were then induced to call a fake customer service hotline.

After victims called the hotline, the fraudsters instructed them to transfer money to designated bank accounts using various pretexts, police said.

“Investigation revealed that the suspects had bought a bulk of SIM cards with real name registration from different people,” inspector Kwan Yat-hei of the fraud division under the force’s commercial crime bureau said.

He added that the suspects had rented a hotel room as an operations centre. Officers found a modem pool – a device that allows users to control multiple SIM cards simultaneously – as well as nine mobile phones and 110 SIM cards in the room.