Hong Kong police have issued a scam alert to the public after fraudsters sent phishing messages under the guise of retail chain Mannings and tricked residents into clicking on a hyperlink that connected to a bogus website.

The force said the scammers’ messages claimed that reward points collected by victims would “expire today” and lured them into the sham website to buy electronic products at an “extremely low price” using their points.

They then obtained credit card details that victims entered on the website, police said in a post on their CyberDefender Facebook page on Monday.

“In the past week, police have received 15 reports of these phishing scams, resulting in losses of up to HK$270,000.”

The force added that the “expiring points” ruse was a common tactic used by fraudsters, and reminded the public not to click on a hyperlinks from unknown sources to avoid being cheated.

“Carefully evaluate if a website is legitimate before entering personal or financial information,” the post said.

Police also urged residents to use the force’s Scameter search engine, accessible through the CyberDefender website or app, to check for suspicious or fraudulent schemes.

The search engine contains information that can help the public identify suspicious web addresses, emails, platform usernames, bank accounts and mobile phone numbers and IP addresses.

In the first five months, police handled 15,750 reports of all types of deception, a decrease of 42 cases from 15,792 reports logged in the same period in 2023.