Warning about all types of online scams and how to recognize them

Unbelievable scams

Recently, public opinion was stirred by the news that a man in Vinh city lost a large sum of money (12 billion VND) due to being cheated by his online lover. According to the investigation results of the authorities, in August 2019, Dao Thi Mong Thuong (born in 1978), residing in Dong Thap province (had a previous conviction for gambling) created and used the Facebook account "Dao Ngoc Minh" to post pictures of beautiful young women, then made friends and texted a man residing in Vinh city. During the conversation, seeing that the victim was a rich person, Thuong came up with the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating the victim's property by cheating on her love.

Thuong introduced himself as Dao Ngoc Minh (born in 1994), whose parents are Vietnamese expatriates currently working in the shipping business and living in Canada. Due to the nature of his work, Ngoc Minh often travels between Canada and Vietnam. To gain more trust, Thuong also created many social media accounts pretending to be Dao Ngoc Minh's relatives to talk and communicate with the victim to create trust. When the victim trusted and had feelings for the character he created, Thuong gave out a lot of false information about Ngoc Minh needing money to take care of work, do inheritance procedures, make personal papers... from there, many times defrauded the victim to appropriate property with a total amount of more than 12 billion VND.

On September 2, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province coordinated with relevant units to successfully crack a case, arrest and urgently search the residence of Dao Thi Mong Thuong for fraud and property appropriation, confiscate 2 mobile phones, and freeze a bond investment contract worth 4 billion VND.

In fact, this trick is not new and the authorities have regularly warned people to be vigilant when chatting and exchanging information on social networks with new acquaintances. Check and verify information carefully before taking any action related to finance or sending personal information. However, many people still "fall into the trap" of scammers.

For example, in September 2023, Nghe An Provincial Police received a report from a 59-year-old woman residing in Tan Ky district about being scammed out of more than 3.3 billion VND by her online "boyfriend".

According to this woman's report, in early July, through social networks, she met a man named Nam, the same age, residing in Hanoi. After a short period of texting back and forth, the man named Nam invited the woman from Tan Ky district to invest in stocks. Trusting her "boyfriend", although she did not know what stocks were, the nearly 60-year-old woman still sent her citizen ID card to Nam to open an account to try investing with 10 million VND.

The first few times she saw that she spent little money but her bank account kept showing interest, especially after her boyfriend promised to buy back the shares at 10 times the price, the woman sold all her assets, mortgaged her relatives' red book, borrowed from friends for 3.3 billion VND and gave it to a man named Nam to invest.

After waiting for a long time without seeing the money in her account as previously announced, the woman asked and the man named Nam announced that the total profit from the investment had reached... 19 billion VND. However, after that, all communication via the Facebook account named Nguyen Hoang Nam was blocked. The woman checked her account on the stock exchange and found that there was no money left, so she filed a report with the provincial police investigation agency.

Signs of recognition

According to the Department of Information Security, Ministry of Information and Communications, for love scams, scammers often find and approach targets through online channels such as social networks, dating websites... Accordingly, they create a fake profile, or use stolen images of others with beautiful and attractive appearances, then create a fake love relationship with the victim by using tricks such as flirting, sharing touching stories or making promises, then luring the victim to send sensitive images and videos and using these images to threaten and blackmail the victim.

For example, Bui Duy Hoa (born 2002), residing in Tan Son commune (Quynh Luu), used a Zalo account named "Bach Ma Hoang Tu" to get acquainted and make friends with female accounts. After a few days, Hoa made video calls on Zalo and filmed himself naked for his partners to see. At the same time, he recorded the video of the call screen and then controlled the ladies by forcing them to film nude videos for Hoa to see and then used that image to threaten, blackmail, and extort money. Bui Duy Hoa was later sentenced to 12 months in prison by the People's Court of Tan Ky district for the crime of "Extortion of property".

More sophisticatedly, once they have grasped the psychology and financial situation of the victim, some subjects also use many different ways to convince the victim to participate in investing in the Forex financial market, through a fake trading floor controlled by the scammer. The victim will be lured to win several times to create trust and greed, then, when winning a larger amount, the victim will not be able to withdraw, forced to pay transaction fees, pay taxes or say that the account information is incorrect, must pay money to verify and authenticate...

And so on, until the victim runs out of money and goes bankrupt. Some scammers even send valuable parcels and force the victim to pay taxes by depositing money into the scammer's account. In Nghe An, there was a case of a victim named VTH, residing in Na Cay village, Tien Phong commune (Que Phong), who was scammed by a scammer who used the profile picture of a Western man to make friends online and spoke sweet words. After nearly a month of exchanging love via text messages, the "online lover" expressed his intention to send the girl a gift. To receive the "huge" gift, she had to pay 12 million VND in customs declaration fees. Believing the online lover's words, VHT transferred 12 million VND to the beneficiary account named Le Van Thanh, account number 1018913492, SAB Bank, Ho Chi Minh City.

After that, the group of scammers continued to ask T. to deposit another 105 million VND to receive the goods, the reason being that the package had a lot of cash so the fee was high. Because the victim did not have money, he went to the bank to borrow money to transfer. Seeing signs of fraud and property appropriation, the bank urged the victim to report to the police for investigation and handling.

Recommendations from the relevant authorities

The Department of Information Security, Ministry of Information and Communications recommends that people stay vigilant. When meeting someone new on social networks or online platforms, verify their identity by learning about them, asking for their address, contact phone number or even meeting them in person if possible. In addition, do not share your personal information too quickly. In particular, be careful with requests to deposit money, invest in Forex or participate in financial transactions of unknown origin.

Before accepting a package from someone you don’t know, check and verify the address, name and other details. The authorities also advise that if you receive a call claiming to have won a large prize, be cautious and verify the information from a reliable source.

At the same time, avoid sharing sensitive images or videos of yourself with people you do not know or trust, to avoid scammers using these sensitive images and videos for blackmail.

In addition, each person needs to learn and master knowledge about common forms of fraud and how to identify suspicious signs, so that they can recognize when encountering a situation that could be a form of fraud and warn promptly.

In addition, everyone should protect personal information by not sharing too much on social networks or online platforms. In particular, be careful when providing phone numbers, home addresses, bank accounts or any sensitive information to people you do not know well, to avoid falling into the situation of "losing money and getting sick".