Since the establishment of the Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) of the Commercial Crime Bureau (CCB) in July 2017, the Bureau has built up collaborations with a number of foreign countries to combat cross-boundary deceptions and frauds more effectively. To further enhance the capability in loss mitigation, the ADCC, the Liaison Bureau (LB), together with the Financial Crimes Unit of the INTERPOL jointly established an International Stop-Payment Mechanism in October 2019 for better coordination among the member countries.

When the ADCC receives reports of fraud involving beneficiary accounts in financial institutions overseas, the ADCC would contact the INTERPOL to initiate the Stop-Payment Mechanism for cases that meet relevant criteria. Reciprocally, the INTERPOL would also refer cases involving beneficiary accounts in Hong Kong to the ADCC for stopping the crime proceeds.

In 2019, a total of 195 requests relating to deceptions with cross-boundary money laundering activities were processed by the ADCC with crime proceeds amounted to HK$611 million in local accounts and HK$34 million in overseas accounts intercepted. The ADCC and the INTERPOL joined efforts in processing the stop payment requests for 18 cases, involving HK$156 million crime proceeds. Eight cases with beneficiary accounts in the United Kingdom, Indonesia, Thailand and Abu Dhabi were initiated by the ADCC while ten cases with crime proceeds deposited from Germany, Hungary, Singapore and South Korea were referred to the ADCC. Among the 18 cases, crime proceeds of eight cases were successfully stopped with a total of HK$108 million intercepted.

The International Stop-Payment Mechanism jointly established by the CCB, the LB and the INTERPOL allows the Hong Kong Police Force to combat transnational crimes more effectively and promptly with an aim to reduce the victims' losses and to maintain public confidence in the financial system of Hong Kong.

If crime officers wish to learn more about the above mechanism, please call the ADCC's internal hotline for details.