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