New Hong Kong police chief pledges more global cooperation to fight scams

Joe Chow takes aim at low detection rate of scams and says police must assess national security risks when vetting protest applications

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New Hong Kong Police Commissioner Joe Chow meets the press on April 2. Photo: Eugene Lee

Published: 1:37pm, 12 Apr 2025Updated: 6:24pm, 12 Apr 2025

Hong Kong’s newly appointed police chief has pledged to step up international cooperation to tackle the low detection rate of rampant scam cases, while strengthening local tools to protect residents from fraud.

Police Commissioner Joe Chow Yat-ming, who assumed the top job on April 2, also said on Saturday the force would not reject all requests for protests, but certain factors such as national security risks would be carefully evaluated before any approvals were made.

Police data show deception cases more than doubled from 19,249 in 2021 to 44,480 last year, accounting for 46.9 per cent of the overall crime in 2024. But the detection rate for fraud stood at only 10.6 per cent.

“Definitely we will strengthen international collaboration against fraud and scams, especially with the International Criminal Police Organization, as we found many scams involving overseas-based perpetrators,” Chow told a radio programme on Saturday.

Locally, the new commissioner pledged to work with different sectors to tackle scams, citing the latest move in which police cooperated with the Hong Kong Monetary Authority and the banking industry to tackle “mule accounts” – ones that had been sold or lent to criminals to help transfer or process illegally obtained funds.

Hong Kong banks will be granted powers as early as the end of this year to trace and flag suspicious accounts linked to scams by exchanging information with police, putting questionable transactions on hold and having officers meet clients in person.