Identifying scams through stock investment groups and chat groups

Hit the psychology of greed and ignorance

In the recommendation dated May 4, 2024 on the Ministry of Public Security's Electronic Information Portal, Lieutenant General To An Xo - Spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security said that the tricks that securities investment scammers often use are: Taking advantage of psychological factors about profits, the lack of knowledge of people and some investors, the subjects claim to be employees of reputable securities companies, make calls and invite people to join groups (group chats), online courses on securities investment.

When the victims agree to join chat groups and closed groups, the subjects continue to introduce high-profit investment opportunities, allowing them to buy stocks on the Vietnamese stock exchange at prices lower than the current market price.

To receive the above incentives, the subjects instructed the victims to access links or install applications on mobile devices, provided by them. When the victims registered accounts on websites and apps on their phones, the subjects continued to entice the victims to participate in online investment groups according to each stock code that has potential on the stock market.

Here, the victims were explained by the subjects that because the financial investment funds were reputable and legal and had links with securities companies, they were supported and had high incentives; or the enterprises issued individual shares, shares to employees and invited the victims to buy back the shares of those officers and employees at a price much lower than the market price...

In order to create trust, the subjects provided the victims with legal documents of the investment fund such as: Certificate of establishment of investment fund issued by the State Securities Commission, Business license, Certificate of the supervising bank... and the bank account to receive money was also in the name of the company account, investment fund with promises of high interest rates, if there was a loss, compensation would be made and the purchase price of stock codes through investment funds would be 15%-30% cheaper than the current trading price.

According to the Ministry of Public Security: Many victims believed in the promises of the subjects, deposited money into the application and continuously made profits, even profits many times over in the first few trading sessions. Investors were also shown many profitable accounts of other investors (which were virtual accounts created by them). In fact, this was a trick to create virtual transactions to create trust, entice, and entice victims to deposit more money into investment accounts.

However, when the victim wants to withdraw money, the application reports an error or reports that the fund's counterpart limit is not met. At this time, the subjects will continuously entice, entice, and force the victim to transfer more money into their account for reasons such as: Submitting incorrect content so the system has not recorded it, paying taxes and fees to withdraw money... Many victims, because they have transferred a large amount of money into their account, are easily manipulated psychologically, having to transfer more money or else they will lose the money they have previously deposited.

When the victims are no longer able to transfer money, the subjects will disable the victims' accounts or make it impossible for them to log in to steal the money that the victims have transferred to the app. When they discover they have been scammed, the subjects delete the victims' accounts from social media groups and block contact with the victims.

"The verification and tracing work is currently facing many difficulties because most of the group chats have addresses outside the borders of Vietnam," said a spokesman for the Ministry of Public Security.

From victim to fraudster

In Nghe An, although the authorities regularly propagate and warn about these financial investment scams with attractive profits, many people are still scammed with large sums of money. Some victims have gone from being victims to being scammed and having their property stolen.

A typical example is Tran Thi Soa (born in 1985), residing in Tien Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, who only did work related to "spirituality". In May 2023, Soa began to "invade" stock investment.

Although Soa lost tens of millions of dong during the investment process and many people advised Soa to focus on his "professional" work, "because money blinded him", Soa ignored all advice and "burned" all his savings over the years into investing in virtual currency.

To have money to "recover" and continue "investing", Soa came up with the idea of ​​taking advantage of an acquaintance, Ms. TTQ, residing in Thai Hoa town, to defraud and appropriate property. Using the excuse that Ms. Q. and her son had an accident and "had to deposit money for a ceremony to cut off the negative energy and change the positive energy", Tran Thi Soa defrauded and appropriated Ms. Q.'s property three times, totaling 1.63 billion VND. Soa invested all the money defrauded and appropriated from the victim in stocks, but continued to lose money and the "investment" system blocked all communication methods. On October 30, 2023, Tran Thi Soa was arrested by the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Police) for fraud and appropriation of property.

Or the case of Nguyen Thi Van (born in 1988), from Thanh Lien commune, Thanh Chuong district, temporarily residing in Trung Do ward, Vinh city. Due to participating in investing money in virtual currency trading floors on the Internet, but the more she invested, the more she lost, the money she borrowed to invest was also lost. Under the pressure of paying off debt and the desire to continue investing in virtual currency, Van came up with the idea of ​​fraud by using the service of transferring money to customers' accounts.

The investigation agency determined that from June 2019 to August 2021, Nguyen Thi Van committed 7 acts of fraud, appropriating nearly 11 billion VND. At the trial held in early 2023, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced defendant Nguyen Thi Van to life in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.

According to the authorities, the common point of the above cases before committing the crime is that the victims lost billions of dong due to investing in business on social networks, so they "got desperate and took risks", turned to fraud in reality, and from being victims, they turned themselves into criminals and got caught up in the law.

Be careful not to fall into the trap

Faced with the above situation, the police force recommends to the people and investors: Absolutely do not listen to and follow the enticements about financial investment on the internet that will bring high profits, especially when you have no knowledge about securities. Absolutely do not participate in group chats, do not invest in websites and apps without carefully researching information about the managing unit.

When wanting to participate, it is necessary to find information from many sources, especially official sources such as: The State Securities Commission's website; financial and banking websites... If there is a need to invest, people can choose securities trading platforms licensed by the State.

In case of suspicion of fraud or property appropriation, people and investors need to immediately report to the nearest police agency for timely support and handling...

The authorities also recommend that people be vigilant and not let "profits" blind them, thereby allowing them to be manipulated psychologically by subjects on social networks, using different methods and tricks, luring them into "falling into the trap" of financial and stock investment fraud... leading to "losing money and suffering".

Gia Huy