An 80-year-old woman narrowly escaped being scammed out of 800 million VND by a man posing as a police officer.
On September 18th, the Duc Co District Police (Gia Lai province) announced that they had successfully thwarted a fraud attempt to steal nearly 800 million VND from an elderly woman.
According to the Duc Co District Police, on September 12th, Mrs. C. (80 years old, a local resident) reported to the police that she had received a strange phone call. The caller identified himself as an officer from the Duc Co District Police and informed Mrs. C. that she was involved in a "money laundering" case.
This person demanded that Ms. C. transfer all the money she had in her bank account, claiming that the transfer was for authorities to check whether the money was related to "money laundering" activities.
Seeing that Ms. C. was somewhat hesitant, the perpetrator repeatedly threatened that if she did not send money to the above account, she would be arrested by the police for involvement in "money laundering" as summoned by the court and the prosecutor's office.
Out of fear, Ms. C. prepared to withdraw all of her savings, nearly 800 million VND, as requested by the scammer. However, having also heard warnings about scams on social media, she went to the police station to report the incident.
At the Duc Co District Police Station, Ms. C. was informed by officers that this was a fraudulent act of misappropriation of property, and she was strictly instructed not to transfer any money.
According to the Duc Co District Police, to work with citizens, the police will directly send invitations or summonses, or send them through the local police.