Hong Kong, Singaporean police team up to smash cross-border scam syndicate

Hong Kong and Singaporean police have teamed up to smash a cross-border syndicate suspected of spending about HK$18 million (US$2.3 million) to buy prepaid SIM cards for running phone scams.

In Hong Kong, a police raid on seven offices led to the arrest of four local men, aged 23 to 48, with officers also seizing various telecoms equipment, including routers, mobile phones, computers and modem pool devices.

Their Singaporean counterparts arrested four Malaysian nationals suspected of being core members of the syndicate and seized 75 modem-pool devices.

Senior Superintendent Hung Hiu-wai of Hong Kong police’s financial intelligence and investigation bureau said: “A common trend is that the scam syndicates will set up bases in different jurisdictions to make it more difficult for local police to trace them.

“One base could be responsible for buying SIM cards, while another will be responsible for making calls, and a third base could be responsible for recruiting ‘money mules’.”

A money mule refers to someone who lends or sells their bank accounts to scammers to help transfer or process criminal proceeds from their activities.