Police yesterday warned people, especially youngsters, not to give their bank account details to others as 68 persons were arrested for holding accounts through which money had been laundered.

In a five-day operation called "Young Diver", police unearthed a scam that could be worth more than HK$1 million and found an increasing number of teenagers to be involved in money laundering. They are still probing over 300 bank accounts.

Hong Kong police are collaborating with their mainland counterparts and the Immigration Department to find out the extent of the scam because money from these accounts have been withdrawn on the mainland.

Ten of those arrested were involved in bogus marriages for money laundering. The number of "one-stop" syndicates for bogus marriage, money laundering and telephone scam has been increasing, police said.

"Respondents to bogus marriage advertisements are asked to open new bank accounts, which are then used to launder money obtained from telephone scams," Senior Superintendent of Police, Kowloon East Region, Peter J. Barnes said.

Though most people involved in money laundering usually "sell" their bank accounts, some simply pass over their account details without realizing for what purpose the information would be used.

"Even some secondary school students have lent their ATM cards to friends," the Officer-in-charge of Team 3A, Regional Crime Unit of the Kowloon East Region, Wu Ching-fung, said.

The age of money laundering offenders is generally on decline, with up to 10 per cent of the offenders in the first 10 months of the year being under-aged students.

In an earlier operation, a 13-year-old girl had been arrested for "selling" her account details to a senior student of her school that was later used by a telephone scam syndicate.

"The local syndicates have widened their net to target not only drug addicts and people who need quick money, but also young students in public places such as game centres and Internet cafes," Wu said.

With signs of money laundering spreading among Hong Kong youngsters, police have urged parents to pay extra attention to teenaged children opening new bank accounts.

The number of telephone deception cases too has risen this year. Till the end of last month, 1,409 cases, which caused a loss of HK$19.6 million, had been reported.

Last year, 780 cases were registered, with the losses amounting to HK$16.7 million.