AI Voice Scams Surge as Whoscall Partners with Hong Kong Police to Combat Fraud
SingTao · 1 SOURCESabout 1 hour ago6 MIN
Summary
Gogolook, the parent company of call-blocking applications Whoscall and BearCaller, is shifting its business focus from merely intercepting suspicious calls to rebuilding public trust through caller authentication services, as AI-generated voice scams pose an escalating threat to Hong Kong residents . Co-founder and CEO Kuo Chien-fu (郭建甫) warned that generative AI has made fraud techniques increasingly realistic, with criminals now able to clone voices and deploy agentic AI to create mass phishing content at minimal cost .
Key Points
- Hong Kong telephone fraud cases surged from 1,140 in 2021 to 8,621 in 2025, rising from 2% to 10% of overall crime .
- In the first five months of this year, telephone scams reached 3,766 cases with total losses of HK$720 million, up 46% and 67% year-on-year respectively .
- Gogolook's survey with the Global Anti-Scam Alliance found Hong Kong residents face an average of 202 scam attempts annually, with average losses of HK$6,798 per victim .
- The company's new "Verified Business Number" service displays authenticated enterprise identities during incoming calls, currently partnering with public institutions and telecom operators .
- Whoscall has collaborated with Hong Kong Police's Anti-Deception Coordination Centre to display police badge icons and official names when officers call potential fraud victims .
- Kuo cautioned that every additional word spoken to suspicious callers improves AI voice-cloning accuracy, urging immediate hang-ups on unknown numbers .
- The company is investing in anti-fraud AI, including large language models and multi-source data verification, and launched an image-based scam detection feature last year .
Why It Matters
The integration of caller authentication into emergency police communications represents a significant evolution in how technology firms and law enforcement collaborate to protect citizens. As voice-cloning technology becomes more accessible, Hong Kong residents face permanent biometric vulnerability—unlike passwords, stolen voiceprints cannot be changed—making preventive verification systems increasingly critical to financial security.
The integration of caller authentication into emergency police communications represents a significant evolution in how technology firms and law enforcement collaborate to protect citizens. As voice-cloning technology becomes more accessible, Hong Kong residents face permanent biometric vulnerability—unlike passwords, stolen voiceprints cannot be changed—making preventive verification systems increasingly critical to financial security.