The number of online employment scams in Hong Kong recorded from January to May nearly doubled from the same period last year, while losses jumped by 89% to HK$480mil (RM259.99mil or US$61.1mil), with police attributing the rise to “click farming” swindles proliferating.

Superintendent Rachel Hui Yee-wai of the force’s cybersecurity and technology crime bureau said the sharp increase was due to a change of tactics by swindlers, who were claiming to offer rewards for online tasks rather than seeking payments for fake job offers.

“Scammers’ targets have expanded to include anyone, not just students and jobseekers. Even if a person is not looking for a job, they can also be targeted,” she said.

Police recorded 2,148 online employment scams in the first five months, a 92.1% increase from the 1,118 cases logged over the same period in 2024. Losses from such scams rose from HK$260mil (RM140.83mil) to HK$480mil (RM259.99mil).

Police figures showed that technology-based crimes, which cover various types of online fraud, were on the rise. The force recorded 13,438 cases in the first five months of 2025, up by 2.6% from the same period last year.

Related losses increased by 13.6%, going from HK$2.2bil (RM1.19bil) to HK$2.5bil (RM1.35bil).

In May alone, 621 online employment scams were recorded, with 60% of them involving WhatsApp and 22% taking place on Telegram.

The largest case that month saw a victim lose HK$2.67mil (RM1.45mil) to scammers running a WhatsApp chat group that claimed to offer paid tasks from the travel booking platform Agoda.

The victim lost the money after using Hong Kong’s Faster Payment System to make 14 transfers to a local bank account in one day.

The bureau’s Chief Inspector Felton Leung Yee-tak said that scammers typically used click farming tactics in such cases and would randomly add residents to chat groups on WhatsApp or other platforms.

“Click farming refers to a seller paying others to purchase products from a designated shop to boost their credit with fraudulent transactions, reselling products or following a celebrity’s social media account for a commission,” he said.

Leung said scammers would reel in victims by paying them small amounts for completing easy tasks, then dupe them into paying to complete more advanced tasks that supposedly offered greater rewards.

But when victims tried to withdraw their “earnings”, scammers would accuse them of making mistakes while completing the tasks or claim the target had damaged their employer’s computer system before demanding penalty payments.

The Post uncovered clicking farm chats on WhatsApp where scammers claimed to work for travel booking platform Klook and invited people to help “click on the like and save buttons” for a cash reward.

For the first task, scammers asked participants to send a message to “report their attendance” and offered a HK$70 (RM38) reward.

They would then be told to take screenshots to prove they had downloaded Klook’s mobile app and saved a specified hotel to their “favourites” folders, with victims being offered another small reward.

The next step saw chat members being asked to switch over to Telegram for a HK$100 (RM54) payout.

Leung urged residents to leave such chat groups immediately, warning that anyone who claimed the small rewards and then left could be held liable for taking part in money laundering if they had knowingly received criminal proceeds.

Hui warned that scammers frequently changed their guises, noting they had gone from impersonating travel platforms in May to restaurant booking ones last month.

“The key is how much the business depends on online activity. The more the business operates online, the more likely fraudsters may exploit the brand,” she said.

A homemaker surnamed Chan said she had lost her life savings, about HK$2.3mil (RM1.25mil), in a click farming scam over about 10 days last December, adding that she had started doing the bogus tasks because she was bored.

The woman, who is in her fifties, was later told to pay tens of thousands of Hong Kong dollars over claims she had damaged the bogus platform’s computer system.

“One day, they changed their story to claim their system had been hacked and left them unable to exchange my money. That is when I started thinking they were problematic,” Chan said.

“They said if I did not finish the next task, I could not get my money back.”

Woo Chin-pang, a police psychologist, said scammers would prey on victims’ fears and guilt to prevent them from getting out of the situation before they lost even more money.

“Scammers use the sunk cost effect to exploit the victims’ weaknesses and demand they pay more money or borrow from their families,” he said. – South China Morning Post