10th June 2023 – (Hong Kong) The Commercial Crime Bureau of the Hong Kong Police Force has arrested three mainland Chinese men on suspicion of stealing other people’s credit card information to make purchases and then reselling the goods for profit. The amount involved in the fraud is said to be over HK$2.7 million.
The police said that they have arrested three men for allegedly stealing credit card information from overseas and using it to purchase large quantities of daily necessities, such as milk powder, laundry detergent, and medicine, from online stores in Hong Kong. The authorities received a report from a local retailer about the suspected theft of credit card data, which led to an investigation and the eventual arrest of the suspects.
As part of the investigation, police officers posed as delivery personnel to monitor the delivery of goods to a warehouse in a Fu Close in Sheung Shui. On 9th June, the authorities launched a raid on the warehouse and seized a quantity of milk powder, laundry detergent, and other items suspected to have been purchased with stolen credit card data. The three suspects, all male and aged between 20 and 29 years old, were arrested on suspicion of “conspiracy to defraud” and “breach of conditions of stay.”
According to the authorities, the suspects are believed to have conducted approximately 4,400 transactions using stolen credit card information, with a total value of around HK$2.7 million. The investigation revealed that the criminal group had been active for about a month and had stolen credit card data from several countries, including the United States, Europe, Australia, New Zealand, and Saudi Arabia.
The suspects reportedly used the stolen credit card information to make small transactions to avoid detection by the banks’ security measures. They then had the purchased goods delivered to the warehouse in Sheung Shui, where they repackaged and resold them for profit.