West Kowloon CHILL RUN Winter Market Anti-Scam Charity Run 2023

“Guard The City” Anti-scam Series - West Kowloon Cultural District Anti-scam Charity Chill Run cum Winter Market 2023

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The Anti-Deception Coordination Centre (ADCC) under the Commercial Crime Bureau launched a series of "Guard The City" anti-scam publicity activities in Q4 last year, including the launch of "Guard The City" AR mobile game in November 2023, as well as the "Anti-scam Charity Chill Run 2023" and “West Kowloon CHILL RUN Winter Market" held at the West Kowloon Cultural District Art Park on 17 December 2023.  

The Commissioner of Police, Mr Siu Chak-yee, was served as the officiating guest.  Other honorable guests were the Deputy Commissioner of Police (Operations), Mr Chow Yat-ming; the Director of Crime and Security, Mr Yip Wan-lung; the Assistant Commissioner (Crime), Ms Chung Wing-man; the Chief Superintendent of the Commercial Crime Bureau, Mr Yau Kin-hung; and the Deputy Director of Macao Judiciary Police, Mr Sou Sio-keong.

Addressing at the opening ceremony, the Commissioner said that the number of global deception cases has continued to rise in recent years.  Police have been endeavouring in combating scams through a multi-pronged strategy, including intelligence gathering, enforcement action, as well as publicity and education. However, it takes more than the efforts of Police to combat deception effectively. In order to comprehensively enhance the effectiveness to fight against deception, it is necessary for all sectors of the community to unite together to make good use of the expertise and resources in different areas, work together to formulate measures to combat deception and to promote anti-deception messages.  He also called on the public to pay more attention to the police’s anti-scam publicity, stay vigilant at all times, make good use of the 24-hour “Anti-scam Helpline 18222” and “Scameter APP”, and actively share anti-scam information to people around. 

This is the first charity event organized by the police with the theme of anti-scam. The "Anti-Sam Charity Run 2023" attracted more than 1,750 participants, and each received a runner’s pack and some anti-scam leaflets.  In addition to encouraging citizens to do more exercise, this event also enhanced citizens' understanding of the ADCC and Anti-scam Helpline 18222.  All proceeds were donated to two local charities: "Food Angel" and "Operation Breakthrough".

The charity run had received generous support from different Police units and organizations. The Kowloon West Region won the "Most Supportive Police Major Formation" award while the Kai Shing Management Services Limited Company, a subsidiary of Sun Hung Kai Properties, won the "Most Supportive Organization" award. In addition to the Champion, First Runner-up and Second Runner-up prizes for the Male and Female group’s 4km event, the Charity Run also featured new prizes for the “Best Anti-scam Theme Costume Award”, the “Best Christmas Theme Costume Award” and the “Most Creative Costume Award”. As a result, many runners dressed up to compete for the awards.

The Commissioner also presented the "Outstanding Partner" trophies to 26 representatives from the public and private organisations attending the event to pay tributes to their contribution in assisting Police in preventing and combating scam in the past year.

The free-admission "West Kowloon CHILL RUN Winter Market" was held at the Great Lawn of the Art Park in the West Kowloon Cultural District with With the attraction of anti-scam mascots - Chai Chai and the Little Grape and exciting programs on site, many parents brought their children to participate.  In addition to singing, music, dance, and magic performances, there were more than 70 stalls at the venue, providing different games, Christmas workshops, VR experiences, drone classes, food, ice cream and more.  The organizer had invited artist Harry Ng and Albert Au to attend the charity run and the winter market as special guest performers, singing a number of songs including the theme song "There’s no free lunch".  The Tai Po District "Little Grape Ambassadors" were also invited to perform drama and dancing shows.

Citizens registered and played the "Guard The City" AR mobile game (guardthecity.com) before participating in the winter market.  In addition to testing their anti-scam awareness level, citizens could earn game tokens to exchange for gifts and workshop tickets at the winter market.  The mobile game has three main tasks, including: "Guardians GO" AR game - finding "The Little Grape" at 20 locations in Hong Kong, "Scam Fighter Boost” easy quiz game and the "Catch Scammers" AR game at the Winter Market.  

ADCC aims to draw public attention to various prevalent scams through innovative and interesting methods, thereby raising public awareness of scam prevention and reducing the chances of citizens being deceived. This event had attracted thousands of citizens to participate. ADCC will continue to optimize and promote anti-scam activities this year. Please stay tune!