Hackers take over Facebook accounts, 'act out' to scam money

Dung and Duong found Facebook accounts of Vietnamese people living abroad and stole passwords.

On July 10, the Criminal Police Department (Ha Tinh Police) said that it had just handed over Le Van Dung (18 years old) and Nguyen Thanh Duong (21 years old, both residing in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri) to Quang Tri Police to investigate the act of fraud and property appropriation.

According to the investigation documents, Dung often searched online for Facebook accounts of Vietnamese people living abroad, then searched for and stole the passwords. The data was sent back to Duong to trick relatives of these Facebook owners into transferring money, or buying cosmetics...

Suspect Dung "reenacts" how to steal Facebook passwords. Photo: CA

Typically, on July 5, Dung took over the Facebook account of Vo Van Nham (living in Ha Tinh, currently working in Japan). After taking control of Nham's account, Dung let Duong chat with his mother, tricking her into sending 20 million VND to several intermediary accounts for personal expenses.

The Criminal Police Department of Ha Tinh Police said that Dung and Duong were knowledgeable about information technology and had sophisticated tricks. After stealing the Facebook accounts, to avoid suspicion from the victims' relatives, the duo would initially make direct video calls, but would not reveal their faces or say anything, then disconnect. Next, they would text messages saying that the network was weak and they could not make calls, and from there they would "act out" to scam money.

Authorities allege that over the past year, using a similar scenario, Dung and Duong have swindled money and phone cards from 12 people in Ha Tinh and several other areas, totaling VND160 million. The stolen assets were divided among themselves for personal use./.

According to VNE