Nghe An police warn against fraud via phone and social networks

All kinds of tricks

Still not over the anger despite quickly realizing this was a scam, Ms. TTH, residing in Block 12, Le Loi Ward (Vinh City), said: Recently, around noon, while she was driving her motorbike to the market to buy food, she heard her phone ringing. Out of habit, she drove to the side of the road to take out her phone to answer, and the other end of the line claimed to be from the Traffic Police Department.

According to Ms. H, upon hearing the word “police,” Ms. H lost her composure and almost dropped the phone. And before she could ask, the other end of the line kept asking, “Your car has a problem.”fine. Have you received the fine notice yet? The deadline for processing has passed... Then, this strange phone number instructed her to follow the steps. However, in a moment of losing her composure, Ms. H accidentally pressed the shortcut key.

Receiving images of violating vehicles at the Command Center, Traffic Police Department of the Provincial Police. Photo: D.C.

While wondering whether to call back the phone number claiming to be the Traffic Police Department, Ms. H remembered that she had to call to ask her husband, "only a husband who goes far away would speed...". But contrary to her guess, after explaining the incident, Ms. H was lectured by her husband, that it was a scam, that even if you are gullible, you will lose money one day... According to Ms. H, "Luckily, I pressed the shortcut key by mistake, and then suspected my husband of going over the speed limit to ask, otherwise it would be easy to lose money to scammers."

Also using the trick of making phone calls to scam, Mr. N.D.H, residing in Hung Dong commune (Vinh city), reported that recently someone claiming to be an electricity employee called him and asked him to pay the electricity bill, with an amount of tens of millions of dong. Over the phone, this person also threatened that if he did not pay immediately, the electricity would be cut off. However, when Mr. D. replied that he had paid, the subject immediately hung up. To verify, Mr. D. called Vinh City Electricity, and was told that it was a fake call with the purpose of defrauding and appropriating money.

The scammer uses the trick of sending links via Facebook and Zalo.

In addition to the phone call method mentioned above, scammers are also using the method of sending links via Facebook and Zalo, with the content "Rolex's 100th Anniversary Celebration. Free gifts for everyone. You have a chance to receive a Rolex watch", "Coca-Cola Welfare Fund. Click here to participate in the survey, have a chance to win 2,000,000 VND"...

According to gullible people who have been scammed and reported on social networks. If you click on the above links, you will be asked to enter a lot of personal information such as name, email address, bank account..., along with instructions to continue sharing with other Facebook and Zalo users to receive gifts. If anyone follows the request, their Facebook, Zalo, and bank account passwords will be lost immediately.

Be vigilant

Talking to us, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Nam Hong - Deputy Head of the Traffic Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police affirmed: All traffic violations detected through the monitoring system (cold fine cameras) are notified by the Traffic Police in writing to the vehicle owner or driver of the violating vehicle, requesting them to go to the unit that detected the violation for handling.

Or when going to register a vehicle, the registration agency will inform about the violation and request the traffic police unit that discovered the violation to handle it. The traffic police will not call to notify the violation, nor will they ask the violator to transfer the fine to any account.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Hong, although up to now, the Provincial Police Traffic Police Department has not received any feedback from the people about the act of impersonating traffic police to request payment of fines as mentioned above. However, to avoid losing money to scammers, people need to raise their vigilance against this type of crime, be alert to calls related to "cold fine" receipts. Accordingly, do not provide personal information to anyone, especially over the phone.

The violator came to pay the fine after reviewing the image at the time of the violation, at the Handling Team, Traffic Police Department (Provincial Police). Photo: D.C.

Also with the aim of warning about scams, Nghe An Electricity Company recently issued "Warning of fake phone calls from Electricity employees"Electricity debt collection", posted on Nghe An Newspaper.

Accordingly, it stated: “Recently, in Vinh City and Cua Lo Town, there have been cases where customers have received calls from strange phone numbers, such as: 0584843882, 0584851033, +84996971296, +67101903717501, 22801249470, 22584215911... claiming to be Electricity officials calling to collect electricity bills and threatening to temporarily cut off electricity if customers have not paid their electricity bills or electricity supply costs, requesting to provide information related to customers' bank accounts or transfer money to accounts not owned by the Electricity unit, this is an act of defrauding customers, affecting the image and reputation of EVN in the community.

To prevent possible damage to customers, Nghe An Power Company has sent an Official Dispatch to its affiliated Power Companies requesting that the units: Proactively disseminate "Warning of calls impersonating Electricity units related to electricity bill payment and electricity service provision" to employees within the unit. When Electricity employees contact customers, they must state their full name, clearly state that they are employees of the Electricity Company of the province, city, town, district, and strictly follow the customer transaction process.

Police force has repeatedly warned and advised against fraudulent phone calls. Illustrative photo

When receiving customer feedback related to strange impersonating phone numbers, it is necessary to proactively coordinate with customers to check, handle and report to competent management agencies in the area to grasp, check and handle according to regulations. At the same time, it is recommended that customers in the area be extremely vigilant with calls from strange numbers, absolutely do not pay electricity bills to strangers or request money transfers to personal accounts...

Regarding the tricks of scammers sending links via Facebook and Zalo, according to technology and cybersecurity experts, Facebook and Zalo users need to be extremely vigilant against messages from strangers or messages with attached links. Accordingly, you should not open those attached links, especially advertising or winning links, because most of these links are intended to scam and absolutely do not follow the instructions because it is easy to fall into the trap, possibly losing your Facebook, Zalo, or bank accounts. The best way to protect your social network account is to set up a mode to block messages from strangers.

From the reality that scams are increasingly sophisticated while the victims are still gullible people, curious people... along with the recommendations from the authorities, people need to be vigilant, before calls from strange numbers announcing fines, paying electricity bills... need to be calm to verify, avoid losing money unjustly. For links sent via Facebook and Zalo messages with advertising content, winning prizes, aiming to appeal to greed as mentioned above, you should not open and absolutely do not follow the instructions.