Hongkongers have become wearily familiar with incoming “spam” phone calls, which once started with the giveaway number “3” but are now harder to spot. Telemarketers are merely annoying, but “scam” calls from their criminal counterparts can lead to severe financial losses. HKFP looks at the rise in both telemarketing and scam calls in the city despite efforts by police and the telecommunications regulator to combat them. According to a report by call-blocker app HKJunkCall last October, more than 16,000 person-to-person telemarketing calls, or spam calls, were reported in the first nine months …
