Beware of phone scams

(Baonghean.vn) - In mid-February 2012, we continuously received information about a phone scam. Many people lost tens of millions of dong. People in Nghe An, especially in mountainous districts, need to be extremely vigilant against these scams.

Actually, phone scams are not a new trick. First, someone receives a strange phone call, claiming to be from this or that company, informing them that they have won a prize from a random draw... then the victim will be instructed to pay a certain amount, called a percentage of the prize, via text message in the denomination of the scratch card. Then they disappear. Or they pretend to be from the bank, informing the customer that they have won a prize, then they must also deposit a predetermined amount of money into the scammer's account, called the "For the Poor" fund. Of course, the victim will never get their lost money back.

Be wary of all these types of messages.

On February 15, 2012, Mr. Ha Phi Hoc (currently the head of Huoi Muong village, Dong Van commune, Que Phong) received a phone call from the number 01666934533 on his family's Viettel wireless landline (number 0386652806) claiming to be from Viettel Corporation, informing him that he had received a prize of 180 million in a random drawing program. The prize structure included a Honda SH motorbike worth 110 million VND and 70 million VND in cash. The person informing him asked Mr. Hoc to read his ID number, complete the cash receipt form and the motorbike registration form. This person also asked him to choose which of the three fees... motorbike registration: 1 million; 1.5 million and 3 million. After Mr. Hoc chose the fee of 1.5 million, the person asked him to buy a scratch card to pay to the phone number above 1.5 million VND. The subject continued to ask him to pay another 500,000 VND (also by scratch card) for "transportation and money".

At 3:00 p.m. the same day, the number asked him to pay another 2 million VND for charity through the “For the Poor” fund. At 8:00 p.m. that night, the number above announced again, “We are in Vinh, preparing to go to the provincial TV station to invite reporters to film and report, so you must pay another 4 million VND as a TV rental fee (?)”. Mr. Hoc fully complied with all of these requests. The next morning (February 16), at 6:00 a.m., the stranger asked him to pay another 2 million VND (without stating the reason) and 5 million VND to “complete the application”. A little later, they asked him to pay another 2 million VND, calling it filming fee (?). At 2:00 p.m., they continued to ask him to pay 3 million VND as travel expenses and 5 million VND as gifts for the crew and for the award ceremony. During the process of buying the card and paying the money, the subject repeatedly told him to keep it absolutely secret, not to tell anyone, and to only be informed when he had received the prize (?). The total amount of money Mr. Hoc paid via scratch card to the phone number 01666934533 was 25 million VND. And then, this phone number was turned off, or out of coverage area.

Mr. Ha Phi Hoc is still in shock over losing a large amount of money.

According to the information we have, to pursue this "gamble", Mr. Ha Phi Hoc had to borrow a considerable amount of money. The total money in the house was 16 million VND, which was not enough, so he had to borrow 7 million VND from Mr. Vy Van Quoc (Party Secretary of Huoi Muong village) and a few others. The irony is that, in the process of buying scratch cards to pay, almost all the scratch cards of the points of sale in this area were... wiped out by his family. 25 million VND is not a small amount, using it to buy cards with denominations of 20,000 VND to 200,000 VND, the number of cards must be up to hundreds. Mr. Hoc said that he had to buy 1.4 million VND worth of cards at the Xop Chao intersection, the rest were bought in Huoi Muong. All 4 mobile phones of family members were brought out to... scratch and pay. For two consecutive days, his whole family had to take turns doing this hopeless task. In total, he had to pay the scratch card money in 9 installments. Currently, in his house, there are still 9 paper packages, the number of cards paid in each installment with clear notes of the date and serial number. Also on February 16, seemingly starting to "wake up" because he saw signs of fraud, Mr. Hoc called Mr. Lang Van Tuan (chairman of Dong Van commune) to inform and ask to call higher authorities, everyone said he had been scammed.

The irony is that after waiting for another 2 days, on February 18, the phone number above was called, there was a signal, Mr. Hoc asked to "request" the money back, the owner said that if he wanted to get the money back, he had to pay another 2.5 million VND, called the fee for transferring money to the bank (?). At 11:30 a.m. on February 19, while writing this article, we tried to contact the number 01666934533. After pretending to ask "Is this Mr. Quang's number?". The other end of the line replied in a Northern accent "No, sir! This is the number of the lottery company's office". Which office is that?

Not long before, in Quy Hop district, Ms. Lo Thi Huong (Bac Son commune) received a phone call from the number 01648044589, claiming to be from Viettel Corporation, informing her that she had won an iPhone worth 18 million VND, and asking her to submit a scratch card worth 500,000 VND to confirm her winning. Ms. Huong borrowed money to submit the scratch card and of course could never contact that number again. Also in this district, a woman called the mobile phone number of Ms. Truong Thi Hoa (Tho Hop), claiming to be an employee of the Agribank branch from the number 01656496927, informing her that she had won a phone and a credit card from this bank with a total value of 84 million VND, and at the same time asking her to go to Hanoi to receive the money or submit 500,000 VND via scratch card to cover the shipping fee for the prize to Ms. Hoa's address. Fortunately, thanks to her vigilance, she did not lose the above amount of money.

Hundreds of scratch cards Mr. Hoc and his family bought to give to criminals



A warning notice from Viettel

Fraud via mobile phones and landlines is not new, but many people still fall into the trap, because their tricks are becoming more and more sophisticated. In particular, the ability to grasp information of people in remote areas is still limited.

We think that this matter needs the immediate involvement of the police (especially when the above phone number is still active, it is not too difficult to use professional skills to track it down). As we have advised Mr. Hoc, he should immediately report the above phone number to the authorities so that measures can be taken to prevent and track it down.

Hopefully, this is also a lesson for all the gullible.

Tran Hai