Be careful not to fall into the trap of calls impersonating law enforcement agencies.

"Psychological manipulation" over the phone

According to the authorities, the common scenario of scammers is to use high technology, impersonating police officers or prosecutors to call victims, informing them that they are involved in a case, drug trafficking, money laundering, hit-and-run, traffic law violation, transnational fraud... that the police are investigating, verifying or have an arrest warrant from the People's Procuracy.

At the same time, the victims were asked to declare their assets, current cash and deposits in bank accounts. Then, the subjects used threatening words to temporarily detain the victims for investigation and asked them to transfer money or read the OTP code so that they could transfer money to their accounts under the guise of verification and investigation.

The subjects often ask the victim not to tell anyone about the story they just discussed, so that the victim does not have enough time to check the information and report it to the authorities.

Although many victims have done nothing wrong, the threats, "psychological manipulation" and urging of the subjects lead to anxiety and they are not alert enough to recognize that they have been scammed.

Recently, on December 8, 2023, Nam Dan District Police received a report from Mr. T., residing in Thuong Tan Loc Commune, about being scammed out of 650 million VND by a person impersonating a police officer. According to the complaint, Mr. T. received a call from a phone number claiming to be a police officer, informing him that he was involved in a drug trafficking and money laundering ring.

After questioning and forcing Mr. T. to declare his current assets, the subject asked him to transfer all the money in his bank account to the subject's account to serve the statement and investigation. Because he was too scared, Mr. T. transferred more than 650 million VND to the subject's account.

Some people were luckier, and were discovered and stopped in time, such as the case of Mr. T.D.T. (62 years old), residing in Lien Son hamlet, Thanh Lien commune, Thanh Chuong district. On October 30, 2023, Mr. T. received a phone call from a strange number informing him that his phone number was not his and would be blocked in both directions in 2 hours.

The subject requested to be friends on Zalo, provided his ID card number to guide him and asked Mr. T. if he had any savings. After Mr. T. honestly said he had 3 savings books worth 290 million VND, he received a video call via Zalo from a person wearing a police uniform, claiming to be an investigator of the Da Nang City Police.

This person said that through checking information, Mr. T. was related to a bank account in Da Nang that was suspected of being related to drug crimes. Then this "police officer" connected with another person, claiming to be a prosecutor of the Da Nang City Procuracy, continued to threaten, asking Mr. T. to go to the bank to withdraw 290 million VND and transfer it to the account number they provided and said that he would return it if Mr. T. was not related to drugs. If he did not comply, Mr. T. would be arrested.

During the video call via Zalo, they repeatedly asked Mr. T. to close the door and not tell anyone about this conversation. The conversation between the subjects and Mr. T. lasted nearly 2 hours. Out of fear and also to prove that he was not involved in the drug ring, Mr. T. quietly took 3 of his savings books and went to the bank to withdraw money and transfer it to them.

Fortunately, Mr. T.'s wife discovered something unusual, so she asked him and informed the Thanh Lien Commune Police for help. The commune police promptly contacted and asked Mr. T. to return to the commune police headquarters for inspection.

When Mr. T. was at the commune police headquarters, the subject wearing a police uniform continued to video call Mr. T.'s Zalo number to urge him to transfer money, but when they discovered that the Chief of Thanh Lien Commune Police was the one answering the phone, they disconnected the call. Mr. T. and his wife later expressed their gratitude to the commune police force for promptly intervening and preventing the family from losing their savings accumulated over many years.

In reality, not everyone is as lucky as Mr. T., in many cases when they discover they are being psychologically manipulated, it is too late, the money has been transferred to the scammers' accounts and appropriated.

How to avoid falling into the trap?

To avoid "falling into the trap" of this type of crime, in addition to the drastic participation of police forces at all levels, the most important thing is that people must raise their vigilance, be cautious, stay calm in the face of threatening and intimidating information and resolutely refuse to work over the phone because as the Ministry of Public Security has clearly stated: When working, verifying, and investigating with individuals, organizations, and businesses, police agencies at all levels will have officers come to work directly or send written notices and summonses to local authorities, company addresses, family members, and people that the police want to work with. Absolutely do not work over the phone and social networks.

The Ministry of Public Security also recommends that people absolutely do not provide personal information, phone numbers, ID numbers (citizen identification cards), home addresses, bank account numbers, OTP codes on personal phones... to anyone they do not know or whose identity and background is unknown. When receiving phone calls with the above signs, people need to stay calm, not be afraid, and quickly contact relatives and friends for advice. In case of suspicion of fraudulent property appropriation, promptly notify the nearest police agency.

'In Nghe An, recently, the authorities have also stepped up propaganda work to warn people to be vigilant against the tricks of impersonating the police, prosecutors, courts... to defraud and appropriate property in many forms, especially propaganda through the press and information channels on social networks.

In addition, in the face of the complicated developments of fraud crimes through telecommunications networks and the Internet, on August 24, 2023, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Official Dispatch No. 7102/UBND-NC on strengthening propaganda, preventing and combating crimes in cyberspace, accordingly, requesting departments, branches, sectors, unions at the provincial level, districts, cities and towns: Continue to thoroughly grasp and effectively implement Directive No. 17/CT-UBND dated May 19, 2021 of the Provincial People's Committee on strengthening solutions to prevent and combat high-tech crimes; deploy the Campaign "Propaganda action on identifying and preventing and combating online fraud" launched by the Ministry of Public Security and the Ministry of Information and Communications.

The focus is to strengthen propaganda among cadres, civil servants, public employees, agencies, units and the People about the methods and tricks of criminals to defraud and appropriate property through telecommunications networks and the Internet, thereby proactively being vigilant, conscious of self-prevention, self-protection and reporting to the authorities when detecting suspicions.

The Provincial People's Committee also requested the Department of Information and Communications to strengthen State management in the field of information and communications; at the same time, request network operators to regularly send messages to inform phone subscribers about methods and tricks of criminals; have more drastic solutions in managing legitimate phone numbers, eliminating "junk" subscribers; closely coordinate with the police force to deploy professional measures to prevent and combat network subscribers with signs of suspected fraudulent activities in cyberspace.

On the part of the provincial police, the Provincial People's Committee proposed to continue to strengthen measures to prevent, combat, and stop crimes and law violations in cyberspace; promptly detect and handle criminal networks and gangs using high technology to defraud and appropriate property... Regularly notify the methods and tricks (especially new methods and tricks) of criminals in cyberspace to propagate and raise people's awareness.