Elderly scam victims lose HK$850,000 on average, but ones who know finance lose more

Investment scams targeting Hong Kong’s elderly rose by 17 per cent in the first quarter of 2026 against a year ago, despite an overall decline in the number of cases, with police warning that better-educated retirees with more investment experience were more vulnerable to fraudsters.Superintendent Theodora Lee Wai-see of the force’s commercial crime bureau said elderly victims’ losses contributed to the 18.6 per cent rise in total losses incurred from scams between January and March compared with the same period in 2025, even as the number of cases fell.“We can see that in investment scams, the average loss for elderly victims is close to HK$1.01 million, showing that once the elderly fall into investment scams, they suffer serious losses,” Lee said.