Impersonating the police, the prosecutor's office... to make fraudulent calls to appropriate property
The subjects asked the victims to provide all their bank account information; only if the money transfer was successful and the subjects could withdraw the money would they stop. Believing the words, the victims went to the bank to transfer all the money they had to the subjects without any hesitation or thinking about what violations they had committed.
The Criminal Police Department of Son La Provincial Police is coordinating with Muong La District Police (Son La) to inspect and verify cases of using mobile phone networks to defraud and appropriate property in the area.
Accordingly, recently, Muong La District Police (Son La) received 6 criminal complaints from citizens in Muong La District with the content that the subjects impersonated Telecommunications, Police, and Procuracy employees to defraud and appropriate property.
Typically, Mr. Ca VA (born in 1973, residing in Muong Chum commune, Muong La district, Son La) had 200 million VND appropriated on August 8, or Ms. Dinh TT (born in 1974, residing in It Ong town, Muong La district, Son La province) had more than 64 million VND appropriated on August 11.
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The victims went to Muong La district police station to report. |
According to the victims' reports, while at home, the victims received calls from a person claiming to be a police officer from the Central Government. During the conversation, the subject informed the victims that they were involved in a large drug ring, so the police asked the victims to cooperate with the investigation. The victims were "threatened" that their accounts would be sealed for verification.
The subjects asked the victims to provide all their bank account information and only if the money transfer was successful and the subjects could withdraw the money would they stop. Believing the words, the victims went to the bank to transfer all their money to the subjects without any hesitation or thinking about what they had done wrong. After realizing they had been scammed, many victims went to the police to report.
Senior Lieutenant Lo Van Truong - an officer of the Criminal Investigation Police Team on Crime - Economy - Drugs of Muong La District Police said that the scammers are very sophisticated. To gain the trust of the victims, they require the victims to install chat applications such as Viber, Line or Telegram... to make video calls with the subjects using the uniform of the People's Public Security or the uniform of the Procuracy and promise that if the money of the victims is not related, it will be transferred back within 20 minutes. After the victims transfer the money, the subjects will take it and cut off contact with the victims.
In addition, the current tricks of the subjects are also increasingly sophisticated and unpredictable. If in the past they used to fake the phone number of the authorities to call landlines to scam, now they call directly to the victim's mobile phone number.
The subjects also collected a lot of information, read it out loud, making the victims tremble with fear, and believe that only the police, the Procuracy... could have such information. This made the victims trust even more.
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Muong La District Police actively investigate and verify information about mobile phone fraudsters. |
Lieutenant Colonel Le Mui - Deputy Chief of Police of Muong La District (Son La) said: They are also very sophisticated when they always ask if the victim is alone or with someone else to facilitate the response, at the same time asking the victim not to say anything to anyone else. In addition, the subjects also have the trick of asking to "keep secrets and cooperate" with the investigation agency.
They promised that after the project was over, they would give certificates of merit and bonuses of up to hundreds of millions of dong to those who contributed. That is why many victims lost their vigilance. The investigation and verification of the scammers also encountered many difficulties, as most of the bank accounts and phone numbers were overseas. However, the Muong La District Police will try their best to track down these scammers.
By the end of October, Muong La District Police had received complaints from 6 victims with a total amount of over 801 million VND. Recognizing this issue, Muong La District Police have been coordinating with relevant agencies to promote propaganda about the methods and tricks of criminal activities of fraudsters who appropriate property on the internet to raise awareness among the masses.