Fraudulent letters purporting to be issued by the HKMA

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to alert members of the public to recent lottery fraud cases involving letters purporting to be issued by the HKMA. Recipients of these fraudulent letters were told that they could receive a large sum of money as winners of a lottery by paying an advance fee (say US$40,000) to a designated bank account. The 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 wishes to inform the public that these letters were not issued by the HKMA. The HKMA has 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:
Sara Yip, Manager (Press), at 2878 8246 or
Ying-ying Cheng, Manager (Press), at 2878 1687

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
17 November 2006