Hong Kong loses $7.52b to fraud as AI use rises

Money laundering in the city hit $17.28b amidst increased AI-driven schemes.

Hong Kong’s total fraud losses reached $7.52b (US$962m) in 2025, with advance fee, lottery, prize, and grant fraud accounting for $4.93b (US$631m), the largest category, according to the Nasdaq Global Financial Crime Report 2026.

Consumer and business fraud through third-party authorisations totalled $6.80b (US$870m), whilst cyber-enabled fraud reached $290m (US$37m).

Impersonation scams amounted to $600m (US$77m), confidence and romance fraud at $330m (US$42m), and fraud targeting elder victims was $2.04b (US$261m).

Other categories included unauthorised bank fraud at $730m (US$93m), business email compromise $170m (US$22m), employment fraud $630m (US$81m), and phishing $16m (US$2m).

The report also found that money laundering and other illicit activity in Hong Kong totalled $135.17b (US$17.28b).

Domestic illicit funds movement was $124.92b (US$15.96b), whilst cross-border activity amounted to $10.32b (US$1.32b).

Organised crime, fraud, and corruption contributed $84.22b (US$10.77b), drug trafficking $32.61b (US$4.17b), and human trafficking $18.07b (US$2.31b).

Terrorist financing reached $270m (US$34m) whilst money mule activity totaled $11.73b (US$1.50b), including $10.17b (US$1.30b) domestic and $1.56b (US$200m) cross-border.

For context, financial crime in the Asia-Pacific region totalled $10.95t (US$1.4t) in 2025, with fraud losses of $1.84t (US$235b).

Globally, total illicit activity was $34.41t (US$4.4t), including fraud losses of $4.53t (US$579.4b) and cross-border flows of $3.77t (US$482.9b).

The report also noted that 90% of financial professionals surveyed observed an increase in AI-driven attacks, reflecting the growing use of technology in financial crime.