Hong Kong police are expanding the functions of the Scameter app to cover suspicious social media content, as online employment and investment ploys have continued to surge despite a marginal overall increase in scam cases.
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Keith Yip Wan-lung, deputy police commissioner for operations, said scammers were changing tactics to capitalise on the latest trends and events, with criminals now favouring social media platforms as the best way to reach victims.
“Scammers design their traps with clear targets in mind. Especially when technology develops rapidly nowadays, they favour online media and scams on these platforms even more,” he said.
Police received 32,142 scam reports in the first nine months of 2025, a 0.1 per cent rise from the 32,120 cases logged in the same period last year.
The amount lost between January and September stood at HK$5.64 billion (US$726 million), a 12 per cent decrease from the HK$6.41 billion recorded for the first nine months of last year.
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Yip revealed that the force was able to freeze 27.6 per cent more scam proceeds, with officers blocking HK$1.57 billion of such funds in 1,124 cases over the nine-month period.