Hong Kong helps seize more than HK$157 million in cross-border online scam operation
Seven Asian police agencies also made 1,800 arrests and froze over 32,000 bank accounts with the aid of direct communication platform
Hong Kong and six other Asian jurisdictions, including Singapore and Thailand, have intercepted more than HK$157 million (US$20 million) and made over 1,800 arrests in the first joint crackdown on online scams using a cross-border direct communication platform for law enforcement.
Chief Superintendent Ernest Wong Chun-yu of Hong Kong police’s commercial crime bureau announced on Tuesday that seven law enforcement agencies across East and Southeast Asia conducted a joint operation between April 28 and May 28 under a direct communication and information-sharing platform called Frontier+.
“We are racing against time, because the money can disappear very quickly … this platform provides a very useful communication platform, so we can communicate with one another quickly,” he said.
As part of the joint operation, police agencies in Hong Kong, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, Malaysia, the Maldives and Macau investigated 9,268 reports. They seized US$20 million in suspected criminal proceeds, froze more than 32,000 bank accounts and arrested 1,858 individuals aged between 14 and 81.
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These jurisdictions, alongside Australia, Canada and Indonesia, were part of a cross-border platform called Frontier+, which was formed last October.