Police believe matching body cameras worn by three of four men arrested in connection with five “guess who I am” telephone scams were used to monitor cash handovers remotely. Memory cards in the cameras contained footage of the men collecting money from victims, according to the police account.
Kwai Tsing police said they arrested four men and recovered HK$360,000 in cash linked to the cases. The group included three mainland men holding two-way permits and a Malaysian man holding a travel document.
Two of the scams took place in the Kwai Chung area on 9 and 14 September. Police said two victims handed over HK$250,000 between them. Officers then traced one mainland man to a garden on Hing Fong Road near an MTR station, where he was handling cash on the morning of 15 September.
Police said the man later went to a cryptocurrency shop in Mong Kok intending to exchange HK$110,000. He was arrested on suspicion of obtaining property by deception, and officers seized the cash, a body camera and two phones.
Another mainland man was arrested with a Malaysian man outside a swimming pool in Kwun Tong while they were allegedly collecting HK$100,000 from a woman, police said. Officers seized the money, another body camera and two mobile phones. A further mainland man was arrested at the Hing Fong Road garden with HK$150,000 that police believed came from scams. The three recoveries totalled the HK$360,000 recovered in the operation.
Police believe the four men came to Hong Kong between 13 and 15 September after being recruited to take part in telephone scams. Some of their phones had joined social-media groups through which they received instructions from people police believe were members of the scam group.
The four men were charged and appeared at a magistrates’ court in West Kowloon on 17 September.