Hong Kong police receive over 40 reports of scams on Carousell in a week

Hong Kong police have received more than 40 reports of scams on e-commerce platform Carousell in the past week, with fraudsters using phishing links to swindle victims out of HK$4.6 million (US$586,900), including one vendor who lost nearly HK$650,000 while trying to sell throat lozenges.

The force said on Wednesday that a woman who sold throat lozenges on Carousell became a target when a scammer contacted her via WhatsApp. The buyer requested the seller’s email address for payment.

The scammer then sent a fake Carousell email with a phishing link. Once the vendor entered her bank details as instructed, about HK$650,000 was transferred and stolen from her bank account.

“Carousell will never ask you for your email address to process payments. Always verify that the official Carousell website ends in ‘carousell.com’ or ‘carousell.com.hk’,” police said.

The force called for shoppers and vendors to verify the background of people they were trading with and check information such as their account creation date and reviews.

“If anything seems suspicious, immediately stop the transaction. Never click on links in unsolicited emails or messages, and exercise extreme caution if any website requests personal or credit card information,” it said.

A Carousell spokesman said the platform was committed to refining its security measures, including using fraud detection tools that were regularly updated to detect the latest scams, block harmful content and identify suspicious accounts.