New fines system 'may be just the ticket for scammers'
New fines system 'may be just the ticket for scammers'
HKCERT reported receiving 4,029 cybersecurity incident cases in the first quarter of this year. Photo: RTHK
The Hong Kong Computer Emergency Response Team Coordination Centre (HKCERT) is urging the public to remain vigilant against fraudulent SMS messages and emails, warning that scammers are likely to exploit the upcoming launch of the police's new electronic ticketing system.
HKCERT received 4,029 reports of cybersecurity incidents in the first quarter of this year – a 67 percent increase compared to the same period last year.
Of these, phishing scams saw a jump of 23 percent in case numbers.
Centre spokesman Alex Chan warned on Tuesday that scammers may create fake payment apps and send out phishing links via SMS messages or emails to steal personal information once the new system comes into effect on June 15.
He stressed the importance of verifying the authenticity of message senders and advised the public to make payments only through official apps or websites.
"For those scams, they always have some similar characteristics," Chan said.
"The URLs [may come] with some spelling mistakes because they cannot occupy the official website domain name.
"For example, they may leverage similar looking characters, for example, "I", "L", "1", or "O" and "0".
"They will play the tricks [through the] similar appearance of characters.
"They will put you in a pressure mode so that you need to settle the transaction in a short period of time or you need to provide your personal information such as your ID card or even the photo or images of your HKID."
Chan also cautioned that scams are expected to rise with increasing use of artificial intelligence tools.
He said people can stay informed about emerging cyber threats by following HKCERT for notifications regarding high-risk cybersecurity issues or the police's "Scameter+" app.
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