Ministry of Public Security warns of tricks of impersonating agencies and organizations to defraud and appropriate property

Spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security - Lieutenant General To An Xo said: The situation of property fraud crimes is still complicated, with many different methods and tricks, especially using high technology to commit crimes, causing public outrage, affecting security, order and people's lives. In particular, tricksimpersonating a person in office,The use of power to commit fraud, especially impersonating police officers, prosecutors, courts, etc., continues to occur despite the fact that authorities have repeatedly publicized and announced the methods and tricks of this type of crime on the mass media.

Some methods and tricks that subjects often use are:

- Using services with the function of impersonating prefix numbers, impersonating phone numbers, impersonating officials of law enforcement agencies such as: Police, Procuracy, Court to call people to put pressure, make people panic, then request money transfer to accounts provided by these subjects to appropriate: Subjects use many different scenarios such as: Pretending to be a post office employee calling to notify of receiving postal items; telecommunications staff calling to notify of debt; electricity staff calling to notify of debt, threatening to cut off electricity; Traffic police calling to notify of fines, causing accidents and fleeing... contacting victims to exploit personal information.

They then use that information to forge arrest warrants and prosecution orders from the police to threaten the victims (often informing them that the victims are involved in transnational drug trafficking and money laundering), asking the victims to transfer money to an account provided by them to assist in the investigation. They tell the victims to register a bank account, transfer money to that account, provide the account, password, and OTP code to the subjects, then they withdraw money from the account to appropriate it.

- Pretending to be acquaintances of Party and State leaders, leaders of agencies in charge of key areas to commit fraud: These subjects often provide photos and videos of themselves with leaders (many products have been cut and edited with high technology) to create trust. Then, they promise to be able to run cases, get jobs, apply for projects, etc., receive money from the victims but do not do so, give many reasons not to return the money, or even flee.

- Impersonating banks by soliciting and providing online loans from banks: Subjects often approach victims by calling, sending messages, emails, through free messaging applications. Then, instruct victims to complete loan procedures or open credit cards through fake bank websites; send fake documents "confirming loan approval" to victims to create trust and ask victims to pay fees or first installment payments into designated accounts, then appropriate.

- Impersonating an agency or organization to announce a “lucky prize”: The subjects impersonate employees of shopping malls, television stations, lottery companies, etc., calling or texting the victims to inform them that they are lucky to receive a prize of high value from a certain program. To receive this prize, the victim must buy a product from the subject with a value higher than the market value or buy and transfer a tax amount to the subject in advance to receive the prize, then appropriate it.

To avoid being "trapped" by scammers, the Ministry of Public Security recommends that people:

-First, be vigilant when receiving calls from landline numbers, the caller claiming to be an officer of a State agency, especially the police force, to notify and request investigation of a case over the phone; do not provide personal information, phone number, home address, etc. to any person whose identity and background are unknown, especially do not listen to the callers who transfer money to designated accounts.

When authorities, especially the police, prosecutors, and courts, work with citizens, they will send invitations and summonses to that person and work directly at the agency's headquarters, not online.

Lieutenant General To An Xo, Chief of Office - Spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security.

-Second, regularly check and update security and privacy features on bank accounts and social media accounts; do not lend or rent related personal documents, do not accept bank transfers or receive money transfers from banks for strangers.

-Thirdly, for cases of fraud and appropriation of assets via cyberspace, especially money transfers via Internet banking and Mobile banking, depending on each specific case, the recovery of misappropriated assets will be very difficult. Therefore, in case of suspicion of fraud and appropriation of assets, promptly notify the nearest police agency for reception and guidance on handling.

Defendant Nguyen Van Huan (born in 1982), residing in Nam Hung commune (Nam Dan) received 7 years in prison for impersonating an officer of the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police with the ability to fix cases to defraud and appropriate property. Photo: Tran Vu

In Nghe An,SAfter more than 01 year of implementing Directive No. 21/CT-TTg, the authorities have discovered and arrested 92 cases, 122 subjects of the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", recovered assets with a total value of more than 19.5 billion VND and returned them to the victims. Of which, 32 major cases were solved, contributing to ensuring good security and order in the area.

To continue to strengthen the prevention and handling of fraudulent appropriation of property, on November 10, 2021, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Document 8963-UBND-NC, which requires: Enhance the responsibility of leaders of Party committees, authorities, Fatherland Fronts, and organizations at all levels in the prevention, combat, and handling of fraudulent appropriation of property; strengthen inspection and examination work to promptly detect, correct, and handle violations of the law related to fraudulent appropriation of property. Step up propaganda and prevention of fraudulent appropriation of property crimes.

Implement measures to prevent illegal collection, use, dissemination, and trading of personal information; take advantage of security vulnerabilities of the management system to collect and exploit personal information to commit fraud and appropriate property....