Advertisements for downloading game apps, watching free sex movies or “playing” the game of flashing the phone to get people to call back… are tricks to “pickpocket” and steal money from the accounts of millions of mobile users.

Four scammers install mobile app repair software

On June 23, the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department (PC50) of Hanoi Police said that it had just coordinated with the Criminal Police Department to successfully crack down on a case of using an application with the function of automatically sending messages to service numbers to appropriate money from nearly 1 million mobile subscribers; temporarily detained Nguyen Tuan Anh (born in 1985), Head of the Business Department of IMMC Joint Stock Company (headquartered on Le Thanh Nghi Street, Hanoi) for the crime of using computer networks, telecommunications networks, the Internet or digital devices to commit acts of property appropriation.

According to the investigation documents, assigned by the Company to implement the business of value-added services on mobile phones, Tuan Anh asked someone to program and build the system "Digital Content Market mmoney.vn" and more than 300 applications on mobile phones (200 Hotclip applications - watch movies online on Android Phone and over 100 offline game applications) containing the function of automatically sending hidden messages to nearly 10 predetermined numbers. These numbers will automatically deduct money from the mobile subscriber's account and transfer it to the "pocket" of IMMC Company without the subscriber knowing.

After the preparation, Tuan Anh posted provocative advertisements about the service “free sex movie viewing application”, then just sat and waited for the victims to fall into the trap. All the money in the customer’s account would be stolen if they downloaded the application from the website created by Tuan Anh.

To increase illegal revenue, the subjects also created a Facebook page called “Mmoney.vn – Vietnam’s leading online money making service”, which advertised a sharing rate of up to 85% for members participating in spreading the application. Using this trick, from July 2013 to now, the website “Digital Content Market m.money.vn” has had over 2,400 members participating; spreading illegal applications, causing over 800,000 mobile subscribers to be “pickpocketed” of over 9 billion VND.

Previously, in April 2014, PC50 coordinated with the Hanoi City Police Department to destroy a gang of 4 people who were stealing money from mobile phone users. Using a similar method to Tuan Anh, this group tricked phone users into installing mobile application editing software containing malicious code, then "stolen" more than 2 billion VND from more than 100,000 subscribers without the owners knowing.

Saw a missed call…call back and the operator automatically deducted the money

According to a PC50 leader, the subjects not only tricked customers into installing applications to steal money, but also used other "unique" tricks to pick customers' pockets.

Recently, PC50 coordinated with the Inspectorate of the Hanoi Department of Information and Communications to inspect the 3G Vietnam Telecommunications Joint Stock Company (located on Truong Dinh Street, Hanoi) and discovered that in the technical room of this company, 13 computers of various types and 237 USB - 3G connected to computers using voice software were installed, making 100,000 calls/day to "pick up" mobile phone numbers.

When the customer calls back the number that was missed, the customer's call will be automatically diverted to a voicemail box with the following content: "Dear, I am a cute, mysterious girl who wants to get to know you. Call 1900xxxx to listen to the song I sent you and talk to me. If you want to get to know me and learn more about me, call me at 1900xxxx...".

If the customer follows the instructions, this switchboard number will automatically deduct money from the customer's account at a rate of 5,000 VND/minute. The authorities have administratively fined 3G Vietnam Telecommunications Joint Stock Company.

Consider carrier liability

It is known that in the case related to IMMC Joint Stock Company, the subjects used the prefixes 8x77, 8x71, 8x55, 6x65, 8x88, 6x86... to "pickpocket" customers. Once users download the application (including applications advertised for free), 15,000 VND/message/prefix will be deducted and the software will automatically send messages that the programmers will "control" the phone to send messages to all the prefixes used by mmoney. The amount of money "pickpocketed" from phone subscribers downloading the application is transferred to the telecommunications network 55%, the prefix company 45% (of this 45%, IMMC Joint Stock Company receives 85% of the money).

Along with advising people not to download applications from unknown sources to avoid becoming victims of technology crimes, PC50 of Hanoi Police said it will consider the responsibility and propose handling of some network operators and companies with prefixes that, for profit, have loosened management, unintentionally assisting scammers.

According to Tienphong