Bogus Voice Message Phone Calls

The Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) wishes to remind members of the public again to stay vigilant to a recent massive scale of bogus voice message (VM) phone calls purportedly from banks claiming irregularities in the customers’ bank or credit card accounts and asking them to input their personal information or contact the operator for account authentication.

Over the past two weeks, the HKMA and some banks (including The Hongkong and Shanghai Banking Corporation Limited, Bank of China (Hong Kong) Limited and Hang Seng Bank Limited) have received a total of almost 2,000 enquiries from members of the public or bank customers concerning suspicious VM phone calls with incoming call display showing the same phone number as an enquiry hotline of the HKMA (2878 1111 / +2878 1111), or calls allegedly from banks.  The messages asked them to input their personal information or contact the operator for account authentication.

The HKMA reminds members of public that they should not simply rely on the incoming call display to establish the true identity of caller.  The HKMA or banks will not ask for any sensitive personal information (including login passwords or one-time passwords) through phone calls or emails.  Nor will they notify anyone of account irregularities through pre-recorded messages.  Members of the public must protect their personal information at all times.

Anyone who has provided his or her personal information to these calls or alike should immediately contact the bank concerned and any local Police Station or the Cyber Security and Technology Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force (at 2860 5012) so that the bank concerned and the Police may follow up and investigate the case accordingly and help protect the affected customer from suffering potential financial losses as a result of disclosing his or her personal information in such case.

Hong Kong Monetary Authority
21 July 2015