"Exposing" the tricks of loan fraud through financial companies

Recently, the Competition and Consumer Protection Department (CCP) has warned about scams by impersonating employees of financial companies (CTTC) to appropriate customers' assets. CTTCs also said that up to now, they have received hundreds of complaints from customers against scammers in Son La, Thai Nguyen, Hai Duong, Hai Phong, Hanoi, Dak Nong, Dak Lak, Tay Ninh, Vinh Long, Ho Chi Minh City...

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According to the Competition and Consumer Protection Department, the scammers' "trick" is to contact consumers via Facebook, phone, claiming to be CTTC employees and consulting on loan application. They offer many loan programs with preferential information for customers.

At the same time, they forged disbursement contracts and debt acknowledgment contracts with fake seals, and forged monthly payment estimates to gain customers' trust in order to commit fraud. They even forged company employee cards to gain customers' trust.

After consumers paid the application processing fee as instructed, these scammers disappeared. They could not contact the above subjects, and when they confronted the company, they discovered that they had been scammed.

According to the Department of Competition and Consumer Protection, the subject's "trick" is to contact consumers via Facebook and phone, claiming to be employees of financial companies and consulting on loan application procedures.

The Department of Competition and Consumer Protection (Ministry of Industry and Trade) said that recently, the unit has received many complaints from consumers and financial companies about some subjects impersonating financial companies to defraud and appropriate money from people in need of quick loans.

“In these cases, financial companies will have no basis to support consumers,” the Competition Bureau said.

Therefore, this unit recommends that if customers have a need for consumer loans, they should not receive loan advice via social networks and mobile subscribers. Due to increasingly sophisticated fraud activities, people should not provide personal information when using social networks because subjects can exploit and take advantage of this information to commit fraud.

“Consumers should carefully research whether the company requires original documents or not. In case the company does not require it, but the person claiming to be an employee needs it for storage, consumers must be vigilant and re-check the information,” the Competition Department’s announcement emphasized.

Beware of money that "falls from the sky"

The Competition Authority also recommends that if consumers need to borrow money, they should only make transactions at the company's service introduction points, not at home to avoid being scammed.

On the other hand, financial expert Huynh Trung Minh commented that criminals often use a number of tricks to exploit the greed of their victims. First, they will ask the account owner to receive a sum of money "falling from the sky" for charity, or to receive a bonus from a promotional program... then ask to provide an account number to transfer the money.

In the second step, the account owner will receive an email or text message with a confirmation link from a certain organization to receive this large amount of money. After logging in to the link, all account information will be lost, including OTP (one-time password entry) which is considered the final step to protect the account in the security stage, which will also be stolen.

Financial expert Lam Minh Chanh also shared that the old form of fraud is asking for account numbers to "give away" charity money, but there are still people who fall for it when they let greed lead them.

Mr. Ngo Tuan Anh - Vice President in charge of network security Bkav recommends that Customers be careful when clicking on links received via email, chat; especially important websites will have the letter "s" in the https phrase. In case of doubt, it is necessary to verify through another secure channel such as meeting in person or calling before proceeding with the transaction.

“Customers need to install permanent security software to protect their accounts and passwords from being stolen by malware. Immediately notify the bank to lock the account if you feel there is any unusual or suspicious behavior,” said Mr. Ngo Tuan Anh.