LCQ12: Measures to fight telephone frauds
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Following is a concern by the Hon Ray Wong and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, in the Legislative Council today (October 7):
Concern:
As telephone rip-offs continue to jeopardise the security of individuals’s monetary residential or commercial property, the Communications Authority (CA) developed in April 2023 the Code of Practice on Management of Scam Calls and Scam SMS by Telecommunications Service Providers (CoP), which states that telecoms company (TSPs) must keep an eye on patterns of suspicious or deceptive interactions and might suspend the services related to the phone number worried if the appropriate requirements are satisfied. The TSPs have actually executed procedures such as releasing notifies for suspicious inbound calls, obstructing such calls and suspending the services related to the phone number associated with frauds, showing that the market has a specific level of technical and system ability. In this connection, will the Government notify this Council:
(1) as the existing CoP currently empowers the TSPs to keep an eye on suspicious inbound calls and suspend the services connected with the phone number worried, whether the CA will, by modifying the CoP, releasing standards or utilizing the licence conditions, study the facility of consistent fundamental requirements for the TSPs to avoid inbound rip-off calls, consisting of requirements for threat recognition, information upgrading, in addition to alert and call-blocking plans; if so, of the information and the schedule; if not, the factors for that;
(2) whether the authorities will, by modifying the CoP or the licence conditions, mandate all the TSPs to supply users with fundamental functions for determining and obstructing inbound fraud calls totally free of charge; if so, of the information and schedule; if not, the factors for that; and
(3) of the variety of demands made by the CA to the TSPs in accordance with the pertinent licence conditions over the previous 3 years to obstruct suspicious inbound calls or suspend the services connected with the phone number worried, and the variety of phone number or messages included; and whether the CA has kept track of the TSPs’ compliance with the CoP or the licence conditions for many years; if so, of the information; if not, the factors for that?
Reply:
President,
Hong Kong is a local interactions center. The Government has actually constantly connected fantastic value to the security of telecoms networks to protect public interests and sustain public self-confidence. The First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030) has actually set out that the Government will step up efforts to avoid and fight telecoms scams and cyber scams. The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) has actually been working carefully with the Hong Kong Police Force (Police) and significant telecoms company (TSPs) to execute a series of steps to fight telephone scams from various point of views. In action to the concern raised by the Hon Ray Wong, in assessment with the Security Bureau and OFCA, the combined reply is as follows:
At present, the Communications Authority (CA) has actually developed a unified system needing the TSPs to find threats and suspend telecoms services of suspicious phone number. In this connection, the CA provided the Code of Practice on Management of Scam Calls and Scam SMS by Telecommunications Service Providers (CoP) in April 2023, needing the TSPs to keep track of calls and messages stemming from their networks and systems and to set requirements for determining suspicious patterns. The TSPs have actually now embraced innovations such as AI and huge information. As soon as a suspicious pattern is identified in the calls or messages made or sent out from a phone number (e.g. making or sending out a great deal of calls or text within a brief amount of time), the TSP will suspend the service of the phone number worried. Based upon functional experience, the CA even more executed the modified CoP in December 2025 to tighten up the requirements for discovering suspicious patterns, with a view to stepping up efforts in combating telephone frauds. From January to August 2026, the typical month-to-month variety of regional phone number with telecoms services suspended has actually reduced to about 5 700, a considerable decrease of almost half compared to the regular monthly average of around 11 400 in the exact same duration in 2015, showing the efficiency of the improved step.
Apart from needing the TSPs to monitor their networks to discover threats, the CA presented brand-new licence conditions for the TSPs in 2022 pursuant to the Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap. 106) (TO) to plainly need that the TSPs need to obstruct or suspend telephone services and sites thought of being associated with deceitful activities in accordance with the demands from police. In this regard, given that September 2022, the Police and significant TSPs have actually developed a close collective system under which the TSPs will without delay obstruct or suspend the service of sites and phone number based upon scams records supplied by the Police. As at end-August this year, a cumulative of more than 120 000 website links and more than 17 000 regional and non-local phone number have actually been obstructed or with services suspended. In addition, given that April 2023, the TSPs have actually been needed by the CA to obstruct suspicious inbound calls beginning with “+852″As at end-August this year, the TSPs have actually obstructed over 8.9 countless such calls from outdoors Hong Kong, supplying reliable defense for Hong Kong’s telecoms networks.
In helping members of the general public in recognizing suspicious calls, OFCA has actually asked for the TSPs to offer call management services or call filtering applications. Users of these services might utilize customised or pre-set “blacklist” and/or “whitelist” functions to filter confidential and suspicious calls, thus reducing suspicious and problem calls. Some TSPs even supply this value-added service free of charge to senior consumers aged 60 or above. As relates to preventive informs, for believed deceptive calls stemming from outdoors Hong Kong, the TSPs have actually completely executed voice or text informs for inbound external calls prefixed with “+852” considering that May 2023, in order to advise users to remain alert versus suspicious inbound calls from outdoors Hong Kong with a “+852” prefix. In addition, considering that December 2024, when a member of the general public responses a call made from a freshly triggered regional pre-paid SIM (PPS) card, the TSP will initially play an automated voice alert message specifying that the “call is made from a new PPS card” to raise the general public awareness of suspicious calls. As concerns deceitful calls impersonating federal government departments and public organisations, OFCA has actually developed a system on devoted phone number for federal government departments and public organisations in requirement, such as the Government’s one-stop query hotline 1823, the Police’s Anti-Deception Coordination Centre hotline 18222, and the devoted numbers with the prefix 18285 or 18286 released by the Hospital Authority in mid-2026, so that members of the general public can plainly determine main calls from federal government departments or public organisations.
In addition, the Police introduced a one-stop rip-off and risk online search engine, Scameter, in September 2022, and a mobile application variation, “Scameter+”in February 2023, to assist members of the general public identify suspicious online platform accounts, payment accounts, phone number, e-mail addresses, sites, and so on, and to offer anti-fraud suggestions. Considering that February 2024, “Scameter+” has actually been geared up with the call alert function and the suspicious site detection function, which immediately determine fraud calls and deceptive sites. If possible scams or cyber security threat is found, “Scameter+” will release a real-time alert, advising users not to address the call or search the site. As at end August 2026, “Scameter” taped over 16 million searches, while “Scameter+” taped over 1.28 million downloads and notified users to a minimum of 410 000 suspicious calls and over 1 million suspicious sites.
OFCA, as the executive arm of the CA, has actually been carefully keeping track of the TSPs’ compliance with licence conditions and the CoP. Ought to any TSP breach the requirements, the CA might enforce sanctions on the TSP worried under the TO.
To step up efforts to avoid and fight telecoms scams and cyber scams, the Government is carrying out a thorough evaluation on the general execution of the Real-name Registration Programme for SIM Cards, and is dealing with more targeted improvement procedures. The steps consist of decreasing the optimum registration limitation of PPS cards for specific users, in addition to developing brand-new offenses, which will criminalise the inappropriate usage of SIM cards signed up with others’ details without legal authority or sensible reason. The Government is actively preparing the information of the legal changes and will speak with the general public on the propositions as suitable.
The Government will continue to deepen cross-sectoral cooperation amongst the Government, organizations and the general public, and embrace a multipronged method to fight telecoms scams and cyber scams, so regarding guarantee the long-lasting security and stability of Hong Kong’s interactions environment.