Listen to a phone call, lose 720 million

Since the end of 2013, the police have repeatedly warned people about phone scams, but so far, many people have still fallen into the trap.

Spectacular deception

In June, a man named D., 70 years old, a retired official in Hai Ba Trung district, Hanoi, went to the police to report the incident: At about 9:00 a.m. on June 23, while home alone, Mr. D. received a phone call to his landline number.

On the other end of the line, a woman's voice introduced herself as a VNPT employee, informing that his family's phone bill for June was 8,930,000 VND.

Startled by the huge electricity bill, when Mr. D. questioned it, the other end of the line instructed him to press the number "9" to connect to the police to clarify the matter.

Nguyen Van Cuong, a telephone scammer, was recently arrested by Hanoi police.

Following the instructions, the other end of the line was a man with a southern accent, asking Mr. D. to provide his mobile phone number. When the other man's number called, on Mr. D.'s phone screen, the incoming number was displayed as (+83) 92311xx.

The man continued to instruct Mr. D. to check the phone number 083.92311xx through the switchboard 1080 to know that he was working with the police.

Mr. D. called 1080 to check and was told that the number 083.92311xx belonged to a police unit in Ho Chi Minh City, so he immediately believed that the person on the other end of the line was a police officer.

Next, Mr. D. was transferred to a phone to talk to a person who claimed to be an investigator of the "Drug Investigation Team" who was investigating a transnational drug ring.

The leader of this drug ring used several bank accounts to buy and sell hundreds of heroin cakes, so the police need to clarify the people involved. And among those involved is Mr. D.

Hearing this, Mr. D. panicked and tried to do everything as instructed to prove his innocence.

This man honestly declared the 720 million VND he deposited in the bank and affirmed that it was clean money that he had saved all his life and had nothing to do with drug crimes.

On the other end of the line, the man claiming to be an investigator asked Mr. D. to transfer all of his savings into the police agency's account to "serve the investigation". Along with that, he asked Mr. D. to ensure the secrecy of the investigation and not to let anyone know about the incident...

As a retired officer, constantly put in unprecedented situations, Mr. D. panicked and was easily controlled by the criminal group.

During the entire phone call with the “investigator”, Mr. D. complied with all requests. When he completed the money transfer, Mr. D. was startled to realize that he had been scammed. Trying to call back the number starting with (+83), Mr. D. could not get through.

Need to raise vigilance

An officer from the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department (PC50), Hanoi Police, said that criminals of this type often act according to a pre-prepared "script". The targets they target are elderly, retired people who are gullible...

The subject used high technology to simulate phone numbers of several police units in provinces and cities, so the victims easily believed them.

The investigation and verification of the cases showed that the above calls were all related to switchboards from abroad to Vietnam via VoIP connections (a technology that allows real-time audio transmission over Internet bandwidth and IP connections), carried out by bad guys using high technology and illegal information equipment.

According to Vietnam.net