On October 12th, the Hong Kong Monetary Authority (HKMA) held a press conference on "Anti-Fraud Measures," revealing that they received a total of 954 bank complaint cases related to fraud in the first nine months of this year, nearly double last year's figure of 555 cases. To address the increasing number of fraud cases, the HKMA will focus on three areas: transaction surveillance, customer alerts, and information sharing. They have issued notifications to 28 local retail banks, requiring them to allocate sufficient resources and experts to ensure the timely implementation of these anti-fraud measures.
Mr. Arthur Yuen, Deputy Chief Executive, stated that the HKMA has introduced a real-time surveillance system to enhance monitoring of suspicious accounts and transactions. All 28 retail banks are required to fully implement this system. In the real-time surveillance system, if a customer makes a transfer to an account identified as suspicious by law enforcement agencies, the bank's internal fraud monitoring system will issue a risk alert.
Within the next two months, the HKMA will launch a "Faster Payment System" suspicious identification code alert. Ms. Kitty Lai, Director of the HKMA，mentioned that when users make transfers using the Faster Payment System and input identification codes such as mobile numbers, email addresses, or Faster Payment System identification codes, if the identification code matches the data in the police's anti-scam database, a warning alert will be shown to the user before confirming the transaction. Users will be reminded of the high risk of fraud and asked to verify whether they want to proceed with the transaction.
The HKMA will enhance the information sharing platform for interbank purposes, which was introduced in June this year. Ms. Carmen Chu, Executive Director of the HKMA, stated that this platform will improve the ability to exchange information among banks, thereby effectively detecting and preventing fraudulent activities and puppet account networks. This further strengthens the stability of the banking system and safeguards the public from fraud and financial crimes.
Moving forward, the Hong Kong China Network Security Association (HKCNSA) will continue its efforts to enhance cybersecurity prevention and control, as well as information sharing. They aim to promote the development of cybersecurity, contribute to the construction of a secure and reliable cybersecurity environment.