Fraudulent letters purporting to be issued by authorized institutions and the HKMA

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to reports of certain fraud cases it has recently received involving fraudulent letters purported to be issued by the HKMA and a couple of banks: International Bank of Asia Limited and Oversea-Chinese Banking Corporation Limited, Hong Kong Branch. Typically, recipients of these fraudulent letters were told that they could receive a large sum of money (say US$ 90 million) by paying an advance fee (say US$ 180,000) to a designated bank account. These letters alleged that the advance fee was required for obtaining a certificate from the HKMA in order to effect the fund transfer to the recipient.

The HKMA takes this opportunity to remind the public that these letters were not issued by the HKMA or by the banks concerned. The HKMA and the banks concerned have already reported the cases to the Hong Kong Police Force for investigation.

Anyone who receives fraudulent letters of this kind is advised to contact the Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force (telephone number: 2860 5012).

For further enquiries, please contact:
Jasmin Fung, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Kevin Ip, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
18 February 2005