A new form of fraud in which customers are tricked into using their ATM or credit cards to make an on-spot payment for "roving promotions" has activated police into beginning a probe.

EPS Company (EPSCO), the only company in Hong Kong that provides direct service to debit one's account for a purchase, warned the people yesterday that anyone asking them to make an EPS payment on the street had to be a fraud.

"Our company has not offered EPS service to any merchant doing roving promotions," EPS spokeswoman Iris Tang said.

The frauds were brought to the company's attention on Tuesday when some individuals contacted them, seeking to know about the use of EPS service in roving promotions. More such enquiries were received yesterday.

Tang said the number of cases reported was only a handful, perhaps less than 10.

According to the EPSCO statement, the victims were asked by people pretending as roving promoters to pay through EPS using an "on-site payment terminal". They were asked to provide an ATM or credit card and enter their PIN code and were even issued a receipt at the end of the bogus transaction.

"EPSCO can confirm that these fraudulent operations are not registered for EPS service and these false transactions were not recorded in the EPS system," EPSCO said. It called on anyone who may have revealed his/her personal account information or PIN code to immediately contact their banks or EPSCO at 27330500.

Police said they had nothing more to comment on the case.

(HK Edition 01/19/2006 page2)