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Following is the transcript of remarks made by the Secretary for Security, Mr Lai Tung-kwok, at a media session at Central Government Offices, Tamar, after the Fight Crime Committee meeting this afternoon (November 27):
Reporter: Why is there quite a significant increase in blackmailing cases in this period of time? Are there any upcoming efforts on cracking down on various syndicates doing phone scamming?
Secretary for Security: We witnessed that in July this year there was a very sharp increase in the number of cases reported to the Police. The Police have decided to work together with District Fight Crime Committees to publicise this kind of information to the people of Hong Kong through all possible avenues. As a result of alerting all the Hong Kong residents to this trend, the number of cases reported to the Police has dropped significantly. We saw in August that the number has dropped from some 800 cases (in July) to less than 140 cases, and subsequently to less than 30 cases last month.
The ways that these people tried to make calls varied differently. So, we must carry on our work to remind Hong Kong residents of this trend. Separately, on the enforcement side, we have worked hand-in-hand with the Ministry of Public Security as well as the Guangdong Public Security Bureau. After exchange of intelligence and analysing all the data available, we were certain that the gang was situated in a certain place in Indonesia. We contacted the Indonesian police and took action resulting in a mass arrest of suspects. The investigation is ongoing.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the transcript.)
Ends/Friday, November 27, 2015
Issued at HKT 18:35
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