Dear Valued Customer,

Industrial and Commercial Bank of China (Asia) Limited (the “Bank”) would like to remind customers “Don’t lend or sell your account. Don’t risk your future for quick money”. To protect your own interests, please read the following information:

Criminal syndicates would lure customers into lending or selling their bank accounts or use their personal credentials to open bank accounts by offering the benefit of quick money through instant messaging softwares, telemarketing or social media platforms. These “stooge accounts” are subsequently used to receive and launder fraudulent payments or other crime proceeds.

The Bank urges customers and the general public not to lend or sell their bank accounts or personal credentials to others as these may be abused for unlawful purpose. Otherwise, customers may expose themselves to the risk of committing the offence of money laundering, of which the maximum penalty is a fine of HK$5 million and imprisonment for 14 years.

In addition, the Hong Kong Police launched an one-stop scam and pitfall search engine “Scameter” to help the public identify frauds and online pitfalls. When the public encounters suspicious calls, online sellers, friend requests, job ads, investment websites and etc., they can search the platform account name or number, payment account, phone number, email address, URL and etc. on Scameter to assess the risk of fraud and cyber security.

For more information, please refer to the Facebook Page (Chinese version only) or official website of the Hong Kong Monetary Authority.