South China Morning Post

Scam victims should be given support, not obstructed

Kandy Wong says some people find the process of fund recovery too complex and daunting, while banks may not be entirely helpful when approached

On average, someone in Hong Kong falls prey to a scam every 13 minutes, losing an amount that could range from a few thousand dollars to millions, and not because they are unlucky or stupid. Rather, they would have been caught off guard by criminal innovation, and unfortunat­ely, no authority or bank is being held to account for what has been allowed to happen.

Scams are rampant and the tricks used are constantly evolving. I found that out the hard way early last month, when my Citibank Rewards credit card had HK$11,984.90 deducted after I clicked into a mobile phone phishing message that looked just like an official text, and authorised a purchase of an item for HK$4.70.

I only later learned that scammers can set two prices for a purchase. Thus, buyers may see one price on a merchant’s website, but discover they have been charged a far higher amount after they authorise the purchase. In my case, no alerts were sent to warn of the price discrepanc­y.

And once the transactio­n has gone through, the process of disputing it can be arduous and lengthy, with only a slim chance the charge will be waived.

Currently, scam victims’ only recourse is to make reports to the bank and the police. However, Legislativ­e Council member Johnny Ng Kit-chong is advocating for a joint platform that requires the cooperatio­n of the financial, informatio­n technology and telecommun­ications sectors to offer scam victims solid support and reduce fraudulent transactio­ns at source.

For many scam victims, including myself, frustratio­n often builds during the long wait to get through to a bank’s customer service hotline, after the scam is discovered.

It doesn’t help that frontline workers sometimes give conflictin­g pointers, such that a victim’s quest to dispute a problemati­c transactio­n might fail.

Without a clear route to lodge an appeal after the bank declined to grant a waiver, I had to make a series of calls to escalate the case.

First I spoke to the Consumer Council. Then I was referred to the Hong Kong Monetary Authority, which finally shared a number for Citibank’s complaint department that could not be found on the bank’s official website.

Even then, my hard work only paid off partially. Citibank’s complaint department tentativel­y agreed to remove the transactio­n late last month, citing non-delivery of the purchased product.

But this was far from the end because an internal investigat­ion will be conducted by a third party – in this case, the card associatio­n – for six to eight weeks, and the transactio­n could be put back on the credit card if the appeal is not upheld.

In response to my query, Citibank said it had handled the transactio­n dispute according to establishe­d procedures.

Systems vary from bank to bank, and some may not be comprehens­ive enough to prevent hacking, according to Ng, who says banks must do more to protect customers.

Citibank said customers were now better reminded with fraud awareness messages, and that most telecoms service providers had registered for a verificati­on scheme that showed the # prefix in a trusted sender’s identifica­tion.

The bank added that “authentica­tion is required mostly” during card-not-present transactio­ns, with a one-time passcode sent over the Short Messaging Service to customers.

Furthermor­e, for customers who have enrolled in the mobile banking applicatio­n, the bank has enhanced the system to support in-app authentica­tion and mitigate the risks of SMS compromise.

According to the police, although the city logged only 474 cases in the first quarter of the year, or 21 per cent fewer year on year, the losses suffered quadrupled to HK$789 million.

Out of a total of 90,276 crimes reported last year, nearly 40,000 were to do with deception. More than HK$9 billion was involved in these fraud cases, of which about 70 per cent were online scams.

While on the one hand, some people find the process of fund recovery too complex and daunting, on the other hand, banks have been known to put off scam victims by saying they have reminded customers about suspicious links, or that the purchase in question has already been “authorised”, never mind that the card holder was tricked into permitting the purchase.

Meanwhile, a large number of similar cases remain up in the air and victims might find themselves having to swallow an unpalatabl­e credit card bill through no fault of their own.