Government to Criminalize Unauthorized SIM Card Registration Amid Telecom Fraud Crackdown
Bastillepost · 3 SOURCESabout 2 hours ago2 MIN
Summary
Commerce and Economic Development Secretary Edward Yau Tang-wah revealed on Wednesday that the government is conducting a comprehensive review of Hong Kong's SIM card real-name registration system. The administration is formulating targeted strengthening measures to enhance prevention and combat telecommunications network fraud, including legislative amendments to criminalize improper use of another person's identity for SIM registration without lawful authority or reasonable excuse.
Key Points
- Government preparing legislative amendments to create a new criminal offense for unauthorized use of another person's name to register SIM cards
- Individual user cap on prepaid SIM card registration to be lowered as part of the strengthened measures
- Average monthly local phone numbers suspended for suspicious calling or messaging patterns dropped to approximately 5,700 between January and August 2026, down nearly 50% from about 11,400 during the same period last year
- Telecom operators have, since September 2022, intercepted or suspended over 120,000 suspicious web links and more than 17,000 local and non-local phone numbers based on police fraud records
- Over 8.9 million suspicious overseas calls with "+852" prefixes have been blocked since April 2023 when the Communications Authority mandated operators to intercept such calls
- The Communications Authority revised the Code of Practice in December 2025, tightening criteria for identifying suspicious patterns using AI and big data technologies
Why It Matters
The proposed criminalization of unauthorized SIM card registration fills a critical legal gap, as such misuse has long been exploited by fraudsters to evade identification. With telecom fraud victims suffering significant financial losses, these legislative preparations signal the government's commitment to strengthening the digital security framework that underpins Hong Kong's status as an international financial center .
The proposed criminalization of unauthorized SIM card registration fills a critical legal gap, as such misuse has long been exploited by fraudsters to evade identification. With telecom fraud victims suffering significant financial losses, these legislative preparations signal the government's commitment to strengthening the digital security framework that underpins Hong Kong's status as an international financial center .