{"id":251144,"date":"2026-05-21T01:54:00","date_gmt":"2026-05-21T05:54:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/hong-kong-privacy-watchdog-warns-of-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam\/"},"modified":"2026-05-21T05:40:13","modified_gmt":"2026-05-21T09:40:13","slug":"hong-kong-privacy-watchdog-warns-of-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/2026\/05\/21\/hong-kong-privacy-watchdog-warns-of-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam\/","title":{"rendered":"Hong Kong privacy watchdog warns of fake retailer compensation call scam"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/law-and-crime\/article\/3354332\/hong-kong-watchdog-warns-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam\">Hong Kong privacy watchdog warns of fake retailer compensation call scam<\/a><\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/law-and-crime\/article\/3354332\/hong-kong-watchdog-warns-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam\">https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/law-and-crime\/article\/3354332\/hong-kong-watchdog-warns-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Publish Date: <a href=\"publish_date]\">2026-05-21 01:54:00<\/a><\/p>\n<p>Source Domain: <a href=\"www.scmp.com\">www.scmp.com<\/a><\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">Hong Kong\u2019s privacy watchdog has warned of a new scam in which fraudsters impersonate an electrical appliance retailer to offer compensation or product replacements, with losses totalling HK$17,000 (US$2,170) in one case.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">A spokesman for the Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data said on Thursday that it had received 24 complaints and seven inquiries in recent months related to such claims.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">All complainants were customers of the electrical appliance brand Built-in Pro.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">\u201cEven if callers can allude to your personal data, you should think twice before disclosing any further personal data or making any payment to the callers if you are in doubt about their identities,\u201d the spokesman said.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">He told the South China Morning Post that the cases were recorded over the past six months, with the number of complaints rising recently.<\/p>\n<p datatype=\"p\" data-qa=\"Component-Component\" class=\"e8zc9q40 css-1c6uqr6 ec74h0k1\">All 24 complainants, who had previously made purchases from the brand, received calls from individuals claiming to be staff members of the retailer, alleging that the appliances were defective.<\/p>\n<p>The Office of the Privacy Commissioner for Personal Data has received 24 complaints and seven inquiries in recent months related to the scam. Photo: Jelly Tse<br \/>\n<br \/><a href=\"https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/law-and-crime\/article\/3354332\/hong-kong-watchdog-warns-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam\">Source<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Hong Kong privacy watchdog warns of fake retailer compensation call scam https:\/\/www.scmp.com\/news\/hong-kong\/law-and-crime\/article\/3354332\/hong-kong-watchdog-warns-fake-retailer-compensation-call-scam Publish Date: 2026-05-21&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":251145,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/cdn.i-scmp.com\/sites\/default\/files\/styles\/og_image_scmp_generic\/public\/d8\/images\/canvas\/2026\/05\/21\/20eec061-5147-4aef-a2e8-0852ea531475_5fa6fadc.jpg?itok=bObhu1NX&v=1779342864","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-251144","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-privacy"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251144"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251144"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251144\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251146,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251144\/revisions\/251146"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251145"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251144"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251144"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/news-you-need.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251144"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}