Nghe An police guide on how to prevent fraud via telecommunications network

(Baonghean.vn) - Up to now, there have been 7 cases of people being scammed by a group of people impersonating police officers and appropriating property through telecommunications networks with a total amount of nearly 2 billion VND. So, how can we avoid falling into the scam trap of this group of people?

» Listening to the phone call, being scammed of 200 million VND

7 victims were scammed of nearly 2 billion VND

After Nghe An Newspaper published an article about the case of Mr. Nguyen Van D. (born in 1947, residing in Hung Dung ward, Vinh city) who was scammed by a group of people impersonating police officers via telecommunications networks, many readers reported that they had received similar calls.

Ms. Tran Thi Mai, an office worker at an agency in Vinh City, said: A person claiming to be a telecommunications employee called my office's landline and informed me that I owed more than 8 million VND in phone bills. They also instructed me to press the keys to get specific information, but I thought it was a scam so I hung up.

Mr. Nguyen Van D. (residing in Hung Dung ward, Vinh city) is still in shock when recounting the incident of him being scammed out of 200 million. Photo: PB

Although this form of fraud has just appeared in Nghe An, many victims have fallen into the trap in recent times. On August 20, Mr. Nguyen Thanh H. (born in 1958, residing in Block 11, Ha Huy Tap Ward, Vinh City) was home alone when his landline phone rang.

Using the same method they used with Mr. D. in Hung Dung ward, the above subjects appropriated 400 million VND from Mr. H. Or in the case of Mr. Nguyen Thiet D. (born in 1960, residing in An Vinh block, Hung Phuc ward, Vinh city) was also defrauded by the above group and appropriated 236 million VND.

According to Major Ha Huy Duc - Captain of the High-Tech Crime Investigation Police Team, Criminal Police Department (Provincial Police), from August 16 to August 25, 7 fraud cases occurred in Nghe An, causing a loss of nearly 2 billion VND. The common method of these subjects is to initially pretend to be telecommunications employees, calling landline numbers to remind them of large phone bill debts due to many calls abroad. Then, another subject pretends to be a police officer to inform the victim that their ID number has been used to create a bank account and use that account to trade drugs and launder money. This "police officer" asks the victim to cooperate to provide the necessary information.

This person asked the victim to transfer all the money in their bank account or savings book to their account to verify whether the money was related to drug trafficking and money laundering. They asked the victim to keep it a secret or else “the criminals will kill them” or if they did not comply, they would “immediately arrest them”. When the victim transferred money to the above account numbers, they quickly withdrew it all to appropriate it.

According to Major Duc, these subjects all targeted female or elderly victims, often home alone. To make the victims believe, they used Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) to fake phone numbers similar to those of the police agency such as: +000113; +084000113. They set up many accounts at many different banks for the victims to deposit money into.

Phone number calling Mr. D's mobile phone. Photo: PB

How to prevent

As mentioned above, this is a new form of fraud that has appeared in Nghe An but has caused great damage to the people. In response to this situation, Nghe An Provincial Police has issued an official dispatch to local police, departments and offices to direct the prevention and fight against crimes of fraud and property appropriation using new forms.

According to the leader of the Criminal Police Department, it is predicted that in the coming time, if there are no preventive and combat measures, this type of crime will continue to increase and become more complicated, causing panic and anxiety among the people, affecting the security and order situation in the area.

In addition to strengthening propaganda about tricks and forms of fraud through Party committees, authorities, and organizations, people themselves need to know how to prevent themselves. According to Major Duc, when people receive strange calls with suspicious signs, they need to stay calm, not follow the requests or press the numbers on the phone. Especially, do not transfer money to accounts as requested by strangers.

People should not provide their account numbers or credit cards to others. In particular, do not transfer money to accounts at the request of strangers. Photo: PB

People should also be wary of strange calls and should not provide their accounts or credit cards to others. When encountering a situation like the one above, they should immediately notify the police to coordinate the solution. Do not handle it yourself because it is easy to fall into a scam scenario.

For bank officers and transaction staff, when detecting people coming to withdraw or deposit money with abnormal signs (anxiety, panic, constantly holding the phone to listen to instructions), it is necessary to promptly notify the police, delay the transaction until the police arrive to handle it, minimizing possible damage.

The leader of the Provincial Police Department's Criminal Police Department said: This is a very sophisticated and professional form of fraud. After receiving cases from the people, the unit is actively investigating and clarifying to quickly arrest the fraudsters. However, the most important issue is that people must be vigilant and protect their assets from the sophisticated fraud schemes that are appearing more and more nowadays./.

Pham Bang