Old man lost half a billion dong after a phone call

The old man was threatened with being involved in a crime so he transferred all his money to a man claiming to be an officer of the "economic crime investigation department" to prove his innocence.

On December 10, Ho Chi Minh City Police and Binh Tan District verified the account number that Mr. Ngoc (71 years old) transferred more than 500 million VND, under the name Nguyen Thu Ha. Authorities are clarifying the act of appropriating all of the above money from the old man.

At noon on December 7, Mr. Ngoc was alone at the Ehome 3 apartment building (Binh Tan district) when the landline phone rang continuously. The man calling claimed to be a major from the Hanoi Police Department's economic crime task force, correctly read the old man's name and claimed that the homeowner was involved in a fraud case that he was investigating.

This person said that the account under Mr. Ngoc's name in Hanoi was used to defraud two billion VND, and asked the old man to "reveal related actions". Threatened with arrest, Mr. Ngoc fearfully said that he only had one account at Dong A Bank, with more than 500 million VND in savings.

The "major" asked Mr. Ngoc to withdraw all the money and transfer it to the police account to verify whether or not he was involved in a crime. If he was not involved, the money would be returned. If he did not comply, he would be arrested and taken to Hanoi for investigation.

He also threatened him not to reveal it to his relatives because it was an "investigation principle". After transferring the money, he should just wait for the results.

That afternoon, Mr. Ngoc went to the bank to withdraw all the money and transferred it to the Vietinbank account number that the "major" provided. However, after waiting for a long time without receiving any contact from the police, the old man inquired and realized that he had been scammed, so he went to the police to report it. All the money that he had transferred to Nguyen Thu Ha's account had been withdrawn.

Recently, many people have fallen into the trap of this type of scam gang despite warnings from the Ho Chi Minh City Police. Their modus operandi is to pretend to be police officers, prosecutors, court officials... to call and threaten their "prey" regarding criminal activities.

Next, they asked the victims to prove their innocence by transferring all the money in the banks to the "investigative agency's account" for verification, then appropriated it.

The account holders are hired by criminal groups to prove their identity in order to open fraudulent accounts.

* Victim's name has been changed.

According to VNE