Unbelievable trick: receiving a phone call can cost you hundreds of millions of VND.

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has issued a public notice to raise awareness about sophisticated high-tech scam calls. However, victims are still falling for these scams.

The latest case was transferred by the District 5 Police to the Criminal Investigation Department for Economic and Official Crimes (PC46) of the Ho Chi Minh City Police for investigation and pursuit of the perpetrators.

Since the beginning of the year, Ho Chi Minh City police have arrested a series of high-tech fraud gangs who used phone calls posing as government officials.

The victim, Thai Le Tuyet M. (born in 1984, residing in Binh Chanh district), reported that she received a phone call from a stranger.

During the conversation, the person on the other end, a man, identified himself as a Hanoi City Police officer investigating a case related to Ms. M's bank account.

The person claiming to be a police officer questioned Ms. M. about many personal matters. Afterward, this person requested that Ms. M. transfer money from her bank account to an account belonging to an investigating officer, named NHN, at Bank S., for verification. If nothing was found, the money would be returned.

Fearing legal repercussions, Ms. M. went to the S. bank branch located on Tran Hung Dao Street, Ward 6, District 5, and transferred 380 million VND into the NHN account.

After that, Ms. M tried to contact the investigating officer again but was unsuccessful, so she reported the matter to the police in District 5.

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has issued a widespread notice to district and county police departments, banks, and the public to warn about phone scams where scammers impersonate police officers, prosecutors, or court officials.

According to the announcement, the aforementioned high-tech fraud criminal organizations involve collusion between Taiwanese (Chinese) individuals and Vietnamese people within the country.

They use high-tech telecommunications equipment, making calls over the internet, impersonating the phone numbers of Vietnamese law enforcement agencies to randomly call large numbers of people.

They threatened the victims, claiming they were investigating money laundering, drug trafficking, and other crimes, demanding that the victims transfer money from their personal accounts to bank accounts they specified.

They then used internet banking to transfer the victim's money to other accounts.

The final step is that they use international debit cards to withdraw money at ATMs both domestically and abroad.

According to statistics, from the beginning of August 2013 to the present, fraud gangs have ensnared hundreds of people, mainly in Ho Chi Minh City, stealing approximately 20 billion VND.

From the beginning of 2014 until now, Ho Chi Minh City police have arrested 42 individuals belonging to various gangs, including 10 Taiwanese nationals, frozen 400 bank accounts, and recovered over 5 billion VND.

The police announcement stated that citizens should be wary of phone calls, as the police do not conduct business with citizens over the phone, and the seizure of evidence is always documented in accordance with the law.

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has requested that police at all levels, including communes, wards, neighborhoods, and hamlets, develop methods and materials for public awareness campaigns to help people understand and be vigilant against these tactics.

The police also advised banks to instruct all transaction staff to remind customers to be cautious when withdrawing, transferring money from, or depositing money into accounts of unknown individuals.

According to Vietnamnet