4 female teachers were scammed out of money after a fake call

On August 19, the Quang Tri Department of Education and Training issued an urgent notice to schools across the province about the scam of impersonating inspectors to request electronic banking passwords and verification codes to trick people into withdrawing money. The department asked teachers to be vigilant and not to provide personal account passwords to anyone.

The incident happened to Ms. Hoa (32 years old, Gio Thanh Primary and Secondary School, Gio Linh District, Quang Tri). According to the report, at 3:21 p.m. on August 18, she received a phone call from a man claiming to be the leader of the Quang Tri province education sector.

At the beginning of the call, the caller loudly threatened and intimidated Ms. Hoa, saying that the inspector was checking the school’s financial situation. During the call, the caller also mentioned the names of the principal, vice principal, and some teachers at the school. Occasionally, she heard the familiar voices of teachers from the same school on the phone.

After about 30 minutes of asking for personal and financial information, the person forced Ms. Hoa to read her online bank account password. When the verification code was sent, Ms. Hoa was asked to read it over the phone. Suspecting that she had been scammed, the female teacher asked her husband to go to an ATM near her house to withdraw money, but the account reported that it was out of money. At this time, the phone message sent showed that 25 million VND in her account had been transferred in one order.

Earlier, on the afternoon of August 16, Ms. Tam (48 years old, Hai Thai Primary School) said that the man loudly threatened and "fired and transferred" her because she did not cooperate with the inspector. Sometimes while talking, she heard the voice of the female vice principal, so she thought this person was working directly at the school.

Among those who were called were the principal and vice principal of the school. Providing information that the inspection team had sent an email and would work with the school the next day, this person exploited the personal information of teachers at the school, such as name, age, teaching hours, working status...

After nearly an hour of "working over the phone", this person asked Ms. Tam to read her e-banking password. When a message with a verification code was sent to her phone, she was asked to provide it but intentionally delayed it so that the verification code would expire even though the other end of the line continued to threaten her loudly. By the third message with the verification code, Ms. Tam was forced to read it to the scammer. Having received the verification code, this person asked her to stay on the phone for nearly 30 more minutes. That day, her account was transferred twice, losing more than 30 million VND. "I felt like I was being terrorized by the phone," Ms. Tam recounted.

Similarly, two female teachers in Gio Linh town and Cam Nghia commune (Cam Lo district) also reported to the police that they were tricked into transferring 11 million VND on August 16.

Authorities determined that from August 16 to 18, the four female teachers were scammed out of more than VND66 million, all using the same method: The suspect called to threaten to fire or transfer the teachers, causing them to be afraid and lose their composure. The suspect was identified as the same person. All four victims received phone calls from the same subscriber number, and the money was transferred to an account named "Nguyen Thanh Trung" opened at the Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade.

The police are working with the bank to reverse the transfer to the account to clarify the case.

*The names of the victims have been changed.