• Anti-deception unit manages to intercept about 80 per cent of the involved funds before scammers can transfer it out of city bank accounts
• While the number of reported email cases for January and February does not vary greatly from 2019, the amounts involved have more than doubled

The US branch of a Japanese bank has been tricked into transferring HK$310 million (US$40 million) into five Hong Kong bank accounts – one of the city’s biggest email scams of the year.
A force insider said officers from the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre managed to intercept nearly HK$240 million of the money before it was transferred out of the scammer-controlled bank accounts, but the international fraudsters still managed to bag about HK$70 million.
The sting was one of 139 reported cases of commercial email fraud in the first two months of the year. The cases involved nearly HK$700 million, more than double the HK$288 million from January and February 2019’s 113 cases.
The Japanese case came to light in January, when the bank made a report to Hong Kong police.
Scammers impersonating one of the bank’s customers had made the money transfer requests, according to one police source.
“Bank staff realised it was a scam when they contacted the genuine client,” the source said. The anti-fraud officers were then tasked with tracking down the money.