Tricked via Facebook, young man lost 70 million in phone card money

(Baonghean.vn) - Trusting his friend, Mr. H. scratched phone cards with a total amount of 70 million VND to send via Facebook. However, after sending the money, Mr. H. suspected that he had been scammed.

On December 31, Captain Pham Trung Hieu - Deputy Head of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team, Criminal Police Department (PC45, Provincial Police) said that the unit is actively verifying and investigating a case of fraud in which a large amount of property was appropriated in the form of phone cards via Facebook.

Previously, on December 23, the Team received a report from Mr. Nguyen Van H. (born in 1990), residing in Thanh Chuong district, about being scammed out of 70 million VND in phone cards via Facebook messages.

The scratch cards worth 70 million VND that Mr. H. bought and sent the card codes to the scammer. Photo provided by the police

According to Mr. H., on December 19, he received a message from a Facebook account belonging to his close friend. This friend had just been working in Taiwan for a few months.

Through Facebook messages, this person said that he needed a large sum of money to pay the “anti-escape” fee but was short on money. If he did not pay on time, his employer would send him back to his country. This person asked Mr. H. to scratch off a phone card and send it to… pay the employer.

Trusting you, Mr. H. scratched a total of 70 million VND in phone cards in 3 days, from December 20-22, and sent them to you via Facebook messages. After completing the scratch card payment to you, Mr. H. began to suspect, calling you via Facetime but couldn't get through. Contacting you via Zalo, Mr. H. found out that your Facebook account had been hacked and taken over by a bad guy.

At this time, Mr. H. realized he was scammed and went to report to the police.

“The tricks of the scammers are becoming more and more sophisticated. Through the investigation of the reporter, it can be seen that, unlike the previous cases we received, in this case, after hacking and taking over Facebook, the scammer carefully studied the victim and the “prey”. He proactively called the victim on FaceTime, but the image on the screen was not clear. After that, he said that due to weak network, he could not make the call. This made the victim lose his guard. Then, taking advantage of the time when the victim was offline, the subject would call FaceTime, leaving many missed calls, waiting for the victim to come online to urge him to send the scratch card,” said Captain Pham Trung Hieu.

Phone card scams via Facebook are not new, but people keep falling into the trap. According to the recommendations of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team, Facebook users should not post personal information on social networks, do not use full name, date of birth or easy-to-remember characters as passwords to avoid being "detected" by bad guys and taking over Facebook. Absolutely do not log in to strange links sent via text messages.

Facebook users need to be alert to requests to borrow money or phone cards on Facebook. In case you receive a request to borrow money, ATM card codes, or buy phone cards, you need to contact the Facebook account owner directly by phone to verify the information./.

Nhu Binh