Associated Incidents
Hong Kong police have arrested eight people accused of running a scam ring that bypassed bank verification checks to open accounts by replacing photos on lost identity cards with deepfakes incorporating fraudsters' facial features.
Senior Superintendent Philip Lui Che-ho of the force's financial intelligence and investigation bureau said on Saturday the raid was part of a citywide crackdown on scams, cybercrime and money laundering carried out between April 7 and 17.
Officers arrested 503 people, aged 18 to 80. Losses in the cases exceeded HK$1.5 billion (US$193.2 million).
Chief Inspector Sun Yi-ki of the force's cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said officers apprehended the eight suspects on Thursday for allegedly using at least 21 Hong Kong identity cards reported as lost to make 44 applications to open local bank accounts.
"The syndicate first tried to use deepfake technology to merge the scammer's facial features with the cardholder's appearance, followed by uploading the scammer's selfie to impersonate the cardholder and bypass the online verification process," Sun said.
Thirty of the 44 applications were successful after the fabricated images passed through online identity checks at banks.
Half of the successful attempts involved images created by merging the scammer's face with the one on the identity card by using artificial intelligence. The rest simply replaced the ID's photo with the scammer's one.
Police said the bank accounts had been used to apply for loans and make credit card purchases totalling HK$860,000, as well as launder more than HK$1.2 million of suspected criminal proceeds.
Sun said the force was still investigating how the syndicate obtained the ID cards, which were declared lost between 2023 and 2024.
Police arrested the six men and two women on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud and money laundering, and confiscated multiple phones, computers and external storage devices.
The suspects are aged between 24 and 41, while the mastermind and core members of the ring allegedly belong to local triad gangs.
Lui warned the public not to rent, lend or sell access to their bank accounts to anyone.
"No matter if the account holder and the user knew each other or not, once the account was used for money laundering, the account holder may face criminal charges," Lui said.
The 333 men and 170 women arrested in the citywide crackdown were found to be involved in 404 cases, most of which were employment frauds, investment swindles and online shopping scams.
They were apprehended over conspiracy to defraud, obtaining property by deception and money laundering.
The cases included two cross-border money-laundering rings that were smashed in collaboration with mainland Chinese police over the past two weeks.
Lui said one of the syndicates hired visitors from the mainland to buy gold jewellery in Hong Kong as a way to launder suspected criminal proceeds from fraud operations.
The syndicate was found to be involved in 240 scam cases between last December and March this year on the mainland, with losses totalling 18.5 million yuan (US$2.5 million).
"Syndicate masterminds would recruit stooges from various provinces on the mainland, bringing them to Hong Kong via land borders and provide hostel accommodation," the senior superintendent said.
Syndicate members would then arrange for the recruits to buy gold jewellery in the city using digital payment methods, with each transaction ranging from tens to hundreds of thousands of Hong Kong dollars.
Hong Kong police on Tuesday last week arrested three men who had just bought 34 pieces of gold jewellery worth HK$836,000 under the syndicate's directions.
Two of them held two-way permits, a travel document allowing mainlanders to enter the city. The third suspect was a Hongkonger.
Mainland police arrested 17 people on the same day.
The second cross-border syndicate arranged for mainlanders to open accounts in Hong Kong with false bank, employment and electricity bills documents. Hong Kong and mainland police arrested a combined 16 people in connection with the case.
The syndicate was involved in 61 scam cases in the city between December 2023 and April, with losses reaching HK$26.7 million. Accounts opened were used to receive scam proceeds.
Separately, Hong Kong police also raided a scam centre inside an industrial unit in Tsuen Wan on Thursday last week.
Superintendent Charles Fung Pui-kei of the force's commercial crime bureau said police had arrested 11 people aged between 20 to 37, with an undisclosed number of them linked to triads.
Officers seized scripts, notes on how to approach victims, mobile phones and SIM cards.
The syndicate looked for potential targets on dating apps, luring them with fake profiles before suggesting the victim set up online shops on a sham platform.
"Estimating from on-site evidence, the syndicate would contact around 100 potential victims per day, with each one losing about HK$50,000 to HK$100,000. We believe the syndicate could swindle up to HK$1 million per week," Fung said.
Under Hong Kong law, the maximum punishment for conspiracy to defraud is 14 years' imprisonment, or a fine of HK$5 million and 14 years in prison for money laundering.