Hong Kong and Singapore police recently joined forces in a transnational law enforcement operation, successfully dismantling a cross-border group centered around Chinese individuals who used "cat pool" devices for large-scale telecommunications fraud, involving funds up to 120 million yuan, marking a significant breakthrough in regional cooperation against cyber fraud in recent years.
According to investigations, since 2023 until early 2025, the criminal group used technical means to disguise overseas numbers as local Hong Kong calls, intensively sending scam calls and messages impersonating officials, courier companies, and bank customer service to Hong Kong citizens, causing significant social harm. The fraudsters purchased a large number of phone cards in Hong Kong, spending about 18.8 million yuan, then transported them to Southeast Asia, and rented units in seven industrial buildings in the New Territories and Kowloon to set up "remote messaging centers," deploying 141 cat pools, 17 routers, and a large number of mobile phones and computers to achieve mass messaging through remote control.
On June 16, 2025, Hong Kong police conducted simultaneous operations at three locations in Kwun Tong, Kwai Chung, and Tin Shui Wai, arresting four local men (aged between 23 and 48), and charged two of them with "conspiracy to defraud." The case was brought to court on June 23, while the other two are still under investigation. The police analyzed the scam signals on the spot and tracked them to two potential victims, fortunately, they were not successfully deceived.
Meanwhile, the Singapore police also took action, seizing 75 cat pool devices and arresting four Malaysian suspects involved, showing significant results in cross-border cooperation. Senior Superintendent of Hong Kong Police, Hung Xiaohui, pointed out that this crackdown benefited from the technical and intelligence support of the international anti-fraud platform "FRONTIER+," which brings together Macau, Singapore, South Korea, Thailand, and more than ten other countries and regions to jointly advance cross-border governance of telecommunications fraud.
This operation not only cut off a key communication and financial chain of cross-border telecommunications fraud but also reaffirmed the necessity and urgency of regional joint efforts to combat telecommunications fraud.
