Beware of Zalo and Facebook hacking scams aimed at borrowing money.

All sorts of scams

In a state of distress, Ms. PTD, a healthcare worker in Vinh City, said that on the afternoon of October 5th, she received information that someone was impersonating her Zalo account to ask friends for loans using a very sophisticated method.

According to Ms. D., this individual created a Zalo account using her name and her photo as the profile picture.CheatThey somehow obtained a data package containing a list of phone numbers from the contact list. Then, they added the numbers on that list as friends. Next, they sent messages asking to chat and borrow money...

Ms. D said that within just over an hour, two people transferred money, totaling 5.5 million VND. "When people noticed something unusual, because I had never messaged anyone asking for money like that before, they called me directly. That's when I checked my Zalo message history and was shocked to find that the scammer had messaged nearly a dozen people asking for money transfers from my own Zalo account," Ms. D said. According to Ms. D, "Luckily, friends called to inform me, so I was able to notify the bank to freeze the account in time, otherwise many more people would have lost money to these scammers."

The messages impersonated the Zalo account of Ms. PTD, a healthcare worker in Vinh City, to ask friends for loans. Photo: PV

More sophisticatedly, there have been cases where individuals intentionally transfer money by mistake to trap account holders into high-interest loan schemes. This was the case with Ms. NTT (residing in Nghi Xuan, Nghi Loc).

Ms. T. said that recently, after waking up from a nap at noon, she unexpectedly received 20 million VND transferred to her bank account along with a cryptic message. While she was wondering who sent the money and how to handle it, towards the end of the afternoon that same day, a strange Zalo account befriended her and said that a financial company had disbursed a loan to her.

Shocked by the notification and suspecting fraud since she hadn't applied for any loans, Ms. T. contacted a family member working at the bank and proceeded with the necessary verification procedures.

One of the advertisements for spell-checkers on social media. (Image: Internet)

Notably, in the context of the Covid-19 pandemic, taking advantage of the common desire of many people to find work to earn extra income and secure their livelihoods, online job scammers have launched various schemes. More sophisticatedly, these scammers target the needs of young people, especially students who are out of school due to the pandemic and looking for part-time jobs such as watching videos, reading, proofreading, or writing product reviews – seemingly easy jobs that offer quick money, and many have fallen victim to these schemes.

D.QT, a student in Vinh City, said: "Through the introduction, I was told that all I needed to do was watch videos and proofread newspapers for about two hours a day, and I could earn tens of millions of dong a month. Seeing that the work was easy and the income was substantial, I quickly agreed to participate."

To start working, T. was asked to pay 250,000 VND to purchase a training course. Afterward, the group manager provided an access link along with an invitation code, which was used to refer others and earn commissions. However, after nearly a month, her income was only a little over 100,000 VND, and she couldn't exchange it for cash or phone top-up cards as initially promised. Each time she checked, she saw her points increasing, so she continued checking. But later, when she couldn't withdraw her money, she realized she had been scammed.

Maintain self-awareness.

The Ministry of Public Security predicts that, in the context of the complex developments of the Covid-19 pandemic and social distancing measures implemented in many localities, the crime situation, especially online fraud and property theft, will continue to be complex and tend to increase with many sophisticated and cunning methods. Specifically, cases of hacking Zalo accounts or creating fake accounts by using victims' images, creating profiles, and adding friends have been occurring for a long time.

Possible scenarios include: the scammer may have obtained the victim's account or created a fake Zalo account beforehand; the scammer may have gained control of one of the victim's cloud accounts; the scammer may have installed a specific application/app on the victim's phone; the fake account may be someone the victim knows and is part of a group with the victim, sharing all the contact information in that group.

A Zalo account owner in Hung Nguyen district whose account was hacked promptly posted a notification. (Photo: PV)

Given this situation, to avoid being scammed, the police recommend that when receiving loan requests via text messages or calls on Zalo or Facebook, people should call back using a regular phone call to verify. At the same time, they should absolutely keep personal information confidential, and not provide personal information, phone numbers, home addresses, bank account information, or information about online services to any stranger who calls.

Regarding the method of mistakenly transferring money, according to an investigator from the Criminal Police Department of the Provincial Public Security, when an account holder receives a sum of money that has been "mistakenly transferred," they should first refrain from using the money for personal expenses and go directly to the bank branch to verify the transaction. They can also contact the police to resolve the issue.

Never transfer money back to strangers without a third party witnessing it, to avoid future problems. Also, do not transfer money back to an account different from the one you originally transferred it to; wait for the bank to process the transaction first. Most importantly, never provide your bank account's OTP code, login name, or password to anyone, even if they claim to be a relative, friend, bank employee, or official.

According to the Nghe An Employment Service Center, online job recruitment activities inevitably contain misleading information, making it difficult to verify job positions and work characteristics, potentially negatively impacting workers. Therefore, before applying for jobs posted online, workers need to thoroughly research the job to avoid being scammed and wasting money and time.

Many fraudsters have been investigated by the police. (Illustrative image)

As the Covid-19 pandemic unfolded, life became increasingly difficult and financially constrained. This led to the emergence of numerous scammers using various methods, such as hacking Zalo accounts to request money transfers or loans; mistakenly transferring money and then demanding exorbitant interest rates; and luring people into working from home… targeting naive and gullible individuals.

Therefore, according to Lieutenant Colonel Tran Duc Than - Head of the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Provincial Police), along with recommendations from authorities, people need to be extremely vigilant. If they suspect any signs of fraud, they should immediately report it to the police for handling.