'Click farming' blamed for sharp increase
Online employment scams in Hong Kong nearly doubled in the first five months of the year, according to reports, with losses jumping by 89%.
Hong Kong Police Force's Cybersecurity and Technology Crime Bureau recorded 2,148 online employment scams from January to May.
This is an increase of 92.1% from the same period last year, the South China Morning Post reported.
In May, there were 621 employment scams recorded, of which 60% took place on WhatsApp and 22% on Telegram.
Overall losses from employment scams reached HK$480 million, up from HK$260 million in the previous period.
'Click farming' swindles
Authorities attributed the sharp increase in employment scams to a shift to "click farming" swindles, with their targets expanding to people beyond students and jobseekers, the SCMP reported.
"Click farming refers to a seller paying others to purchase products from a designated shop to boost their credit with fraudulent transactions, reselling products, or following a celebrity's social media account for a commission," said Chief Inspector Felton Leung Yee-tak, as quoted by the news outlet.
According to the chief inspector, scammers would at first pay victims by paying them small amounts for small tasks, and then offering greater rewards for more advanced ones.
However, these victims would get accused of making mistakes while completing tasks if they tried to withdraw their earnings. They could also be accused of damaging the employer's computer system before demanding penalty payments.
This is the case of "Chan," as reported by The Standard, who got pressured to pay additional fees and lost HK$2.6 million in 10 days.
According to Chan, the scammers set over 30 tasks per day, which offered earnings of over HK$1,000.
The largest recorded loss was from a 50-year-old man who lost HK$6.2 million to a fraudulent e-commerce platform on Facebook. A woman also lost over HK$2 million in a single day.
The click farming tactics begin with the scammers adding their victims to group chats on WhatsApp and other platforms, so the public is urged to leave such groups immediately.
Leung further warned that those who claimed small rewards and then left could still be liable for money laundering if they unknowingly received criminal proceeds, the SCMP reported.
