A warning to the "gullible"

(Baonghean) - After Nghe An Newspaper published the article “Beware of the tricks of winning prizes through social networks”, many readers “confessed” that they had been “gullible” and fallen into the trap of scammers. Hopefully, through the stories they shared, everyone will raise their vigilance and cooperate with the police to quickly find the scammers and punish them severely before the law…

After a long wait, Mr. NN D, residing in Nghi Trung commune (Nghi Loc), finally agreed to meet the reporter and tell about his experience as a victim of online fraud. Mr. D said: On March 28, his phone notified him of a message via Facebook's maessenger system. The message informed him that Mr. D had won the first prize of the "Maessenger Customer Appreciation" program from Messenger Group Joint Stock Company. The prize was a Liberty 150 lE motorbike and a gift certificate worth 100 million VND in cash. Mr. D was instructed to call 00841676564711 for more details. “As if by magic, I immediately called the above number and was guided by a man with a Central accent to complete the application online. After declaring all personal information, this person said that I had to deposit 2.5 million VND for the official application fee. Without thinking, I immediately went out and bought 5 Viettel cards, each worth 500,000 VND to pay,” Mr. D recounted. After that, Mr. D was asked by the above subject to deposit an additional 7.5 million VND for registration fee and 12.5 million VND for tax. The total amount Mr. D paid to the above subject via scratch cards was 22 million VND.

Mr. NND (left) presented the incident to Nghe An Newspaper reporter.

At that time, Mr. D only had 10 million VND in cash. To have enough money to pay the above subject, Mr. D had to borrow 6 million VND, pawning his Iphone 5 for 6 million VND. Seeing that the "fish" had taken the bait, the above subjects continued to play tricks to "extract" more money from Mr. D. They called and informed that the above prize was for the first quarter and was now transferred to the second quarter, which was a SH motorbike along with a cash prize worth 300 million VND. They asked Mr. D to pay another 20 million VND to receive the prize. When Mr. D said he did not have the money and promised to pay tomorrow morning, the scammers turned to threaten him.

Mr. D said: “Another man told me that if I did not pay 20 million VND, I would have to pay 300 million VND in contract compensation and would report me to the police. Because I was so panicked, I told my mother, then she instructed me to report to the police. Through my own experience, I hope everyone will be more vigilant so as not to be deceived like me,” Mr. D shared.

PV A, residing in Nghi An commune (Vinh city) is also a victim of online scammers. In his police report, A said: At around 10:29 am on March 23, A texted a Facebook user with the nickname "kelangthang". This is the username of Nguyen Hong T (A's cousin) who is currently working in Italy. During the conversation, the user with the nickname Kelangthang asked A to buy phone cards and send them via Facebook message to sell to Vietnamese people abroad.

Because he believed that he was his cousin, Mr. A bought 16 million VND in Viettel phone cards and sent them to the above Facebook address. After sending the money, Mr. A was told by that person that he would send the money back via Viettinbank. This person used the number 82690501 to send a message to Mr. A's phone saying that he had sent the money back. But when Mr. A went to the bank to check, he found out that he had been scammed. Mr. A said: Maybe they had followed my Facebook and knew that I often chatted with my cousin, so they created a Facebook with the same name, picture and information to trick me. Thinking that he was my cousin, I didn't suspect anything, but these people are very clever. This is a lesson for me and for many people who are currently using Facebook to contact relatives.

After receiving the victims' reports, Vinh City Police used many professional measures to collect relevant information. However, because some of the victims did not fully report, many people refused to provide information, causing difficulties for the police. Currently, Vinh City Police are planning to establish a special project to collect relevant information to fight this criminal group.

In addition, the city police will mobilize relevant departments and offices, and seek professional assistance from the provincial police to quickly track down the perpetrators. Through this, we also recommend that people, when detecting signs of being solicited or scammed, should report to the local police for timely prevention measures. And above all, people need to be alert and clear-headed when receiving information online in any form. This is a warning for those who are "gullible" to such "fairy tale" promotional forms.

Pham Bang