Withdrawing savings with an uneasy look, woman was helped to escape the trap of a scammer

On the afternoon of June 24, Ba Vi District Police, Hanoi, said that they had coordinated with Agribank Ba Vi District branch to promptly prevent a fraud case of appropriating property by impersonating police officers and making phone calls to threaten and extort money.

Previously, on the morning of June 21, Ms. PTN (born in 1967, in Yen Ky village, Phu Son commune, Ba Vi district, Hanoi) received a call from a strange phone number, claiming to be an officer of Binh Dinh Provincial Police, informing her that Ms. N. was involved in a large drug trafficking ring.

Then, this person instructed Ms. N. to open a bank account and transfer money into that account to serve the investigation, otherwise she would be arrested. Out of fear, Ms. N. went to Agribank alone to withdraw money from her savings book and open an account to transfer money into that account according to the instructions of the scammer.

When arriving at Agribank Ba Vi District branch, Ms. N. requested to withdraw 260 million VND from her savings book, with a tired face and a confused state of mind. Realizing that Ms. N. was acting abnormally, the bank staff quickly contacted the Ba Vi District Police.

After understanding the situation, Ba Vi District Police officers and bank employees clearly explained to Ms. N. about this fraud scheme, as well as the method of appropriating property of the subjects, taking advantage of the telecommunications network to impersonate the police agency to commit the crime and reminded Ms. N. not to listen to or follow the subjects' requests.

Faced with the methods and tricks of impersonating police officers, Ba Vi District Police have recently directed professional teams to coordinate with police in communes and towns to repeatedly warn people to be vigilant, not to transfer money or provide personal information to strangers over the phone, to avoid falling into the traps of bad guys.

Ba Vi District Police confirmed that to work with the people, the police will directly send invitations, summonses or send them through the commune or town police. There is absolutely no case of the police calling to ask citizens to transfer money to bank accounts. When detecting cases with signs of fraud as above, people need to immediately report to the nearest police agency for timely support and resolution.