Sophisticated 'tricks' to steal money from bank accounts

Even though no withdrawals or transfers were made, customers still lost large sums of money because their card information was stolen right at the ATM or because of increasingly sophisticated criminal scams.

The online conference on card payment safety was held by the State Bank this morning, September 8. At this meeting, Colonel Tran Van Doanh - Representative of the Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention and Control of the Ministry of Public Security (C50) gave a detailed report on the current situation of card crimes. According to him, the criminals are mainly foreigners, coming from China, Indonesia, Malaysia; in the South and Central regions, the subjects are from Eastern European countries such as Bulgaria, Romania, Türkiye, Russia, England, etc.

Stealing card data right at the ATM

Many ATMs are equipped with skimming devices by criminals to steal all information when cardholders withdraw money.

The C50 representative described that with this form of theft, criminals use a plastic board containing a card information stealing device (called a skimming device) to cover the outside of the card slot. With this device, when inserted into the slot, the card will go through the skimming device first and then into the card slot. In this form, criminals will get all the information stored on the card's magnetic strip.

In addition, card criminals also install a small camera, often disguised in a plastic bar or advertising board mounted right above the ATM keyboard, to record all PIN entry activities of customers when withdrawing money.

Mr. Doanh said that after obtaining bank card information and PIN codes, the subjects will use devices to fake bank cards through specialized software and magnetic card data reading and printing devices sold on the internet and then withdraw money at ATMs. In addition, card criminals also install a small camera, often disguised in a plastic bar or advertising board mounted right above the ATM keyboard to record all PIN code entry activities of customers when withdrawing money.

The foreign subjects were divided into many small groups, with clear assignments of functions and tasks, including the group that installed the devices, the group that took the devices, collected card information and then sent it to the IT group to make fake cards, and the group that withdrew money.

Skimming crimes are often concentrated mainly in big cities such as: Hanoi, Hue, Hoi An - Quang Nam, Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa, Mui Ne - Phan Thiet - Binh Thuan, Ninh Thuan, Vung Tau, Ho Chi Minh City ...

Get information through fake bank websites (Phishing)

Even if the card is in the wallet, the money in the account can still evaporate. Photo: AFP.

According to the police, recently, criminals often take advantage of users' loopholes to steal bank account information. Criminals set up websites to win prizes and send messages via Facebook, Zalo, Viber, etc., informing account holders that they have won valuable assets or items, asking them to access the websites to register to receive the prize. In addition, criminals can set up websites that impersonate bank websites, sending links to notify customers that money has been transferred to their accounts but there is an error requiring them to provide information for verification.

When the OTP verification code is sent to the phone, the subject impersonates a bank employee and informs that the winning code has been sent for verification, asking the victim to provide it to complete the procedure.

After obtaining the information, criminals use it to buy phone card codes, game cards on online sales websites or transfer money to intermediary accounts to withdraw money or hire people to withdraw money domestically and internationally.

Buy or hire someone to open an account

Currently, there is no regulation on how many accounts a person can open at a bank, so according to the police, the situation of renting and buying back accounts for the purpose of transferring and receiving money fraudulently and committing crimes is becoming more and more complicated. Currently, there are no sanctions for those who open accounts to sell or rent accounts to receive money fraudulently. These accounts are all opened by Chinese and Taiwanese subjects in connection with domestic people who hire people to open accounts for a price of 1-2 million VND (per account). After opening an account, the hired person gives the bank card, user information, and internet banking password to the Chinese subjects to use to transfer and receive money.

In many cases, the accounts were rented and opened, then used to transfer and receive money from buying and selling cryptocurrencies such as bitcoin, onecoin, WMZ, or transfer and receive money from football betting and online gambling. This money, after being transferred into the account, will be withdrawn immediately or transferred to many accounts.

Some Africans met Vietnamese women through social networks, proposed long-term relationships, then announced that they were sending gifts and valuables from abroad to Vietnam. They asked that upon receiving the gifts, they must transfer an advance amount of money to their pre-existing accounts to appropriate them.

Or criminals can attack and hack into the email passwords of the Sales Department of companies that have business relationships with foreign countries to get information about electronic contracts, change the transaction domain name or create reasons to change the beneficiary account to another account opened at a Vietnamese bank. Immediately after that, criminals will withdraw all the money at the transaction counter or withdraw money abroad.

According to VNE