Woman Cheated Of HK$800,000 As Job Scams Jump

Police on Monday warned of a jump in scams aimed at jobseekers with a 26-year-old woman getting cheated out of some HK$800,000.

Police said they recorded 48 employment scam cases involving HK$7.8 million from January to April this year – up from 15 cases amounting to HK$1 million across the whole of last year.

In the scam that involved the largest amount so far this year, the victim was lured into giving away her personal information after she applied for a job advertisement she saw on social media.

The fraudsters then used the data to take out personal loans amounting to HK$800,000, leaving her liable for the money.

Police said almost half of the cases were linked to loan applications, with scammers using the victims to borrow large sums.

Chief Inspector Tam Wing-sze from the Commercial Crime Bureau warned about other tactics employed by scammers, including requests for security deposits, administrative costs and membership fees.

She said in one case a woman paid HK$170,000 as an "administrative fee" while responding to an advertisement that promised a job as a flight attendant.

But a Labour Department official, Yeung Chi-kit, who also attended the media briefing said that not all administrative fees are bogus as some employers legitimately ask for deposits. He urged jobseekers to judge such requests before accepting them.

"It must be commensurate with the actual job nature. The reason for asking for a deposit, just an example, for some security companies, they may give the employee like uniforms or shoes or things like that, just to repay the employees when they leave the employment, when they return the uniforms," he said.

But he warns that it should be a red flag if the employer has already asked for all sorts of fees before actually meeting a job candidate.