Dating via Tinder, woman was scammed of 5.4 billion VND

In early March, the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department of Hanoi City Police received a petition from Ms. T., reporting the appropriation of 5.4 billion VND.

Ms. T. said she joined the dating app Tinder and met a man who introduced himself as a doctor at a large hospital in Singapore. After gaining trust with Ms. T., this man invited her to join the virtual currency game.

The first time Ms. T. deposited 20 million VND and immediately withdrew 30 million VND. She continued to deposit 266 million VND and withdrew 304 million VND. After 2 deposits, Ms. T. earned a profit of 48 million VND, an interest of 16.8% of the principal she invested within 2 days.

She continued to deposit 300 million VND and was notified that "the account won 10.1 billion VND" but could not withdraw the money. The system notified that "must pay 20% of profit as personal income tax".

Ms. T. paid 1.7 billion VND in personal income tax, 2 billion VND in account verification to withdraw money and 1.4 billion VND to join the fast withdrawal channel. However, she still could not withdraw. In just 5 days, she transferred 5.4 billion VND to the subjects. After that, she realized she was scammed and went to the police to report.

Warning about the above situation, the police said that taking advantage of the increasing number of people using online dating applications, many subjects have committed fraud and property appropriation. The subjects will find "prey" through popular online dating applications such as Tinder, EzMatch, Litmatch, Hullo...

After making friends and gaining trust, the subjects will switch to the topic of finance, encouraging the victim to participate in attractive investments. If the "prey" agrees to pay, the interest will be refunded immediately to increase trust.

When they have collected a large amount of money, the subjects will use the excuse of "upgrading the VIP package", "refunding the investment support fund", "removing the safety mode"... to appropriate the victim's assets.

Hanoi City Police recommends that people be vigilant when participating in online dating applications and friend requests from strangers on social networks. Do not participate in financial investment applications or international trading floors that are advertised with high interest rates and potential risks of fraud to protect yourself and avoid falling into financial traps. When seeing signs of fraud, people should immediately report to the police.