Hong Kong police said the city's overall crime rate rose 8.7 percent last year compared with 2021, driven by a surge in fraud cases.

Speaking at a special meeting of the Legislative Council's Security Committee, Police Commissioner Paul Siu Wai-man said there were slightly more than 70,000 cases of various types, 40 per cent of which were related to fraud. Other serious crimes, such as burglary, assault and arson, have fallen to their lowest levels in decades.

Last year alone, the police received about 28,000 reports of fraud, an increase of 45% over 2021. Victims of fraud lost about HK $4.8 billion, with most of the crimes linked in some way to the Internet.

Job scams surged more than fourfold last year, with victims losing about HK $480 million. Victims of investment scams lost about HK $1.8 billion, of which about HK $1 billion were defrauded through telephone scams.

Police have stepped up efforts to warn people about the fraudsters' modus operandi, but victims who are scammed usually say they did not pay much attention to publicity campaigns, Siu said.

"Many victims, when we talk to them, they know we have anti-deception propaganda. But when asked if they had investigated the contents, they said, no, "the police chief said at a news conference.

He said police had been "force-feeding" warnings to the public about scams, even if they were not interested, placing advertisements before film screenings and issuing announcements aimed at motorists as they passed through the tunnel.

Xiao said the police are discussing with telecommunications companies whether they can set up verification systems for text messages to convince people that the sender is trustworthy, as well as whether telecommunications companies can block fraud-related hyperlinks in text messages.