Hongkongers are more prone to fall victim to scammers than people in mainland China and Taiwan, and those who do suffer greater losses, a study has found.
Researchers at the City University of Hong Kong said on Friday they had polled about 1,500 people in each of the three territories – Hong Kong, mainland China, and Taiwan – via online questionnaires between March and May this year regarding their experience with scams.
Results showed that Hong Kong had the highest percentage of victims at 6.8 per cent, compared to 3.7 per cent in mainland China and 6.1 per cent in Taiwan, according to local media reports.
Among scam victims, 54.9 per cent in Hong Kong suffered losses greater than HK$100,000, compared with only 18.9 per cent in Taiwan and 39.7 per cent in mainland China who sustained similar losses.
The discrepancy could be explained by the higher average income in Hong Kong compared to the other two places, said Professor Christine Huang, who led the study, during a Friday press conference. But further analysis was needed, she added.
Educated Hongkongers more vulnerable
The study also found that, in Hong Kong, people with a university degree or above were more likely to succumb to scams, while women were prone to suffer greater losses.
Of those who engaged with scammers, 35.4 per cent in Hong Kong reported the incident to police, compared to over 50 per cent in Taiwan and mainland China, the researchers said.
While impersonation scams targeting officials or acquaintances were most common in Hong Kong and Taiwan, investment-related “opportunistic” scams caused the greatest financial losses.
Meanwhile, in mainland China, consumption scams involving online shopping and e-commerce were the predominant type of fraud.
Huang said the results highlighted the need for specific anti-scam strategies that target people in different age groups and with various educational levels.
“Victims [of scams] do not only come from disadvantaged groups as in our conventional understanding,” HK01 quoted Huang as saying in Cantonese.
It required concerted effort between the government, news media, enterprises, and civil groups to promote anti-scam awareness, she added.
Hong Kong has seen a sharp increase in scams-related crime figures in recent years. Between 2020 and 2024, the number of scams reported to police almost tripled.
In the first five months of this year, authorities logged over 17,000 scam cases, accounting for almost half of overall crime, according to Police Commissioner Joe Chow.
