Following is a question by the Hon Ray Wong and a written reply by the Secretary for Commerce and Economic Development, Mr Algernon Yau, in the Legislative Council today (October 7):
 
Question:
 
     As telephone scams continue to jeopardise the safety of people's financial property, the Communications Authority (CA) formulated in April 2023 the Code of Practice on Management of Scam Calls and Scam SMS by Telecommunications Service Providers (CoP), which stipulates that telecommunications service providers (TSPs) should monitor patterns of suspicious or fraudulent communications and may suspend the services associated with the telephone numbers concerned if the relevant criteria are fulfilled. The TSPs have implemented measures such as issuing alerts for suspicious incoming calls, blocking such calls and suspending the services associated with the telephone numbers involved in scams, reflecting that the industry possesses a certain level of technical and system capability. In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
 
(1) as the existing CoP already empowers the TSPs to monitor suspicious incoming calls and suspend the services associated with the telephone numbers concerned, whether the CA will, by amending the CoP, issuing guidelines or using the licence conditions, study the establishment of uniform basic requirements for the TSPs to prevent incoming scam calls, including criteria for risk identification, data updating, as well as alert and call-blocking arrangements; if so, of the details and the timetable; if not, the reasons for that;
 
(2) whether the authorities will, by amending the CoP or the licence conditions, mandate all the TSPs to provide users with basic functions for identifying and blocking incoming scam calls free of charge; if so, of the details and timetable; if not, the reasons for that; and
 
(3) of the number of requests made by the CA to the TSPs in accordance with the relevant licence conditions over the past three years to block suspicious incoming calls or suspend the services associated with the telephone numbers concerned, and the number of telephone numbers or messages involved; and whether the CA has monitored the TSPs' compliance with the CoP or the licence conditions over the years; if so, of the details; if not, the reasons for that?
 
Reply:
 
President,
 
     Hong Kong is a regional communications hub. The Government has always attached great importance to the security of telecommunications networks to safeguard public interests and sustain public confidence. The First Five-Year Plan for Economic and Social Development of the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (2026-2030) has set out that the Government will step up efforts to prevent and combat telecommunications fraud and cyber fraud. The Office of the Communications Authority (OFCA) has been working closely with the Hong Kong Police Force (Police) and major telecommunications service providers (TSPs) to implement a series of measures to combat telephone fraud from different perspectives. In response to the question raised by the Hon Ray Wong, in consultation with the Security Bureau and OFCA, the consolidated reply is as follows:
 
     At present, the Communications Authority (CA) has established a unified mechanism requiring the TSPs to detect risks and suspend telecommunications services of suspicious telephone numbers. In this connection, the CA issued the Code of Practice on Management of Scam Calls and Scam SMS by Telecommunications Service Providers (CoP) in April 2023, requiring the TSPs to monitor calls and messages originating from their networks and systems and to set criteria for identifying suspicious patterns. The TSPs have now adopted technologies such as AI and big data. Once a suspicious pattern is detected in the calls or messages made or sent from a telephone number (e.g. making or sending a large number of calls or text messages within a short period of time), the TSP will suspend the service of the telephone number concerned. Based on operational experience, the CA further implemented the revised CoP in December 2025 to tighten the criteria for detecting suspicious patterns, with a view to stepping up efforts in combating telephone scams. From January to August 2026, the average monthly number of local telephone numbers with telecommunications services suspended has decreased to about 5 700, a significant reduction of nearly half compared with the monthly average of around 11 400 in the same period last year, demonstrating the effectiveness of the enhanced measure.
 
     Apart from requiring the TSPs to monitor their networks to detect risks, the CA introduced new licence conditions for the TSPs in 2022 pursuant to the Telecommunications Ordinance (Cap. 106) (TO) to clearly require that the TSPs must block or suspend telephone services and websites suspected of being involved in fraudulent activities in accordance with the requests from law enforcement agencies. In this regard, since September 2022, the Police and major TSPs have established a close collaborative mechanism under which the TSPs will promptly block or suspend the service of websites and telephone numbers based on fraud records provided by the Police. As at end-August this year, a cumulative of more than 120 000 webpage links and more than 17 000 local and non-local telephone numbers have been blocked or with services suspended. In addition, since April 2023, the TSPs have been required by the CA to block suspicious incoming calls starting with "+852". As at end-August this year, the TSPs have blocked over 8.9 million of such calls from outside Hong Kong, providing effective protection for Hong Kong's telecommunications networks.
 
     In assisting members of the public in identifying suspicious calls, OFCA has requested the TSPs to provide call management services or call filtering applications. Users of these services may use personalised or pre-set "blacklist" and/or "whitelist" functions to filter anonymous and suspicious calls, thereby minimising suspicious and nuisance calls. Some TSPs even provide this value-added service for free to elderly customers aged 60 or above. As regards precautionary alerts, for suspected fraudulent calls originating from outside Hong Kong, the TSPs have fully implemented voice or text alerts for incoming external calls prefixed with "+852" since May 2023, in order to remind users to stay vigilant against suspicious incoming calls from outside Hong Kong with a "+852" prefix. In addition, since December 2024, when a member of the public answers a call made from a newly activated local pre-paid SIM (PPS) card, the TSP will first play an automatic voice alert message stating that the "call is made from a new PPS card" to raise the public awareness of suspicious calls. As regards fraudulent calls impersonating government departments and public organisations, OFCA has established a mechanism on dedicated telephone numbers for government departments and public organisations in need, such as the Government's one-stop enquiry hotline 1823, the Police's Anti-Deception Coordination Centre hotline 18222, and the dedicated numbers with the prefix 18285 or 18286 launched by the Hospital Authority in mid-2026, so that members of the public can clearly identify official calls from government departments or public organisations.
 
     In addition, the Police launched a one-stop scam and pitfall search engine, Scameter, in September 2022, and a mobile application version, "Scameter+", in February 2023, to help members of the public distinguish suspicious online platform accounts, payment accounts, telephone numbers, email addresses, websites, etc, and to provide anti-fraud tips. Since February 2024, "Scameter+" has been equipped with the call alert function and the suspicious website detection function, which automatically identify scam calls and fraudulent websites. If potential fraud or cyber security risk is detected, "Scameter+" will issue a real-time notification, reminding users not to answer the call or browse the website. As at end August 2026, "Scameter" recorded over 16 million searches, while "Scameter+" recorded over 1.28 million downloads and alerted users to at least 410 000 suspicious calls and over 1 million suspicious websites.
 
     OFCA, as the executive arm of the CA, has been closely monitoring the TSPs' compliance with licence conditions and the CoP. Should any TSP breach the requirements, the CA may impose sanctions on the TSP concerned under the TO.
 
     To step up efforts to prevent and combat telecommunications fraud and cyber fraud, the Government is conducting a comprehensive review on the overall implementation of the Real-name Registration Programme for SIM Cards, and is working on more targeted enhancement measures. The measures include lowering the maximum registration limit of PPS cards for individual users, as well as establishing new offences, which will criminalise the improper use of SIM cards registered with others' information without lawful authority or reasonable excuse. The Government is actively preparing the details of the legislative amendments and will consult the public on the proposals as appropriate.
 
     The Government will continue to deepen cross-sectoral collaboration among the Government, businesses and the public, and adopt a multipronged approach to combat telecommunications fraud and cyber fraud, so as to ensure the long-term security and stability of Hong Kong's communications environment.

Ends/Wednesday, October 7, 2026
Issued at HKT 14:30

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