Freezing bank accounts, preventing a 100 million VND fraud in Vinh City

(Baonghean.vn) - When the victim reported being scammed out of 100 million VND via Facebook, the police promptly notified the bank to freeze the account and prevent the subject from withdrawing money.

» Warning: Sophisticated tricks to defraud online sellers

Regarding the form of fraud to appropriate property of online sellers, on the afternoon of November 1, Captain Pham Trung Hieu - Deputy Head of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team, Criminal Police Department (PC45, Provincial Police) said that the police agency had just coordinated with the bank to successfully prevent a fraud of nearly 100 million VND.

The scammer created a fake phone number, similar to a foreign phone number, and then faked a money transfer notification. Photo provided by the police.

Accordingly, on the morning of November 1, Ms. Nguyen Thi Huong (residing in Vinh City) went to Nghe An police station to report that a subject used Facebook to trick her into buying goods and then used tricks to withdraw 100 million VND from her bank account.

Realizing that the subject used a form of fraud against online sellers, the police focused on verification. Through text messages on the victim's phone, the police determined that the subject used Internet banking services to withdraw 100 million from Ms. Huong's account and transfer it to another bank account. After that, this account continued to transfer the above amount to 2 other bank accounts for the purpose of withdrawing money.

According to Captain Hieu, when the victim reported, we immediately sent a letter to the bank requesting to freeze the two accounts above, to prevent this subject from withdrawing money. Thanks to that, Ms. Huong's fraudulent act of appropriating property was promptly prevented.

They also asked for the e-wallet code created from the victim's phone number to withdraw money. Photo provided by the police

Up to this point, the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team has recorded 4 cases of online sellers being scammed by these subjects. The method of these subjects is to hack Facebook, then come in to offer to buy goods. They fake many virtual phone numbers, similar to foreign phone numbers such as:+447239935130; +447239939108… to text that the money has been transferred in advance.

When the seller enters personal information and bank account into the fake website provided by them, this subject takes over the bank account and withdraws money to appropriate.Faced with the increasingly complicated situation of fraud, the Criminal Police Department (PC45, Nghe An Provincial Police) has a warning for the people.

Specifically, people should not enter or provide bank account information, especially passwords and OTP security codes of Internet banking services, on any website, to anyone other than the bank's website that they registered with (when they themselves make transactions).

People also need to be vigilant and not conduct important transactions when communicating via Facebook. To make sure the person you are contacting is a friend or relative, it is best to make contact via phone call. Because in reality, there have been many cases of criminals hacking other people's Facebook accounts and then using that Facebook account to appropriate property by borrowing, asking for money or asking for phone cards.

"People need to protect their own assets, first of all, they need to improve the security of their social network accounts. Regularly warn and share information about scams with relatives and friends so that everyone can take the initiative to prevent them," Captain Hieu added.

Nguyen Hung