Falling into the trap of love and money fraud because of 'love' online

Lost billions because of trusting lover… online

On February 15, 2022, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention of Quang Ninh Provincial Police received a complaint from Mr. Nguyen Trong H, residing in Ha Long City, about his property being defrauded by a fraudster.

According to the report, through an online “lover-finding” website, Mr. H met a woman who introduced herself as “Thuong”, born in 1989, living in Ngo Quyen district, Hai Phong. This person confided to Mr. H that she was divorced, had previously worked in Singapore, and had now returned to Vietnam to live and open a fashion store, but due to the pandemic, she was staying at home.

After a while of talking, Thuong said she had feelings for Mr. H and introduced herself as participating in the foreign exchange market on a Forex platform called “usdcgloballimited.com”, wanting to invite him to invest in a joint account, and if they were compatible, they could get married. Mr. H agreed and Thuong introduced him to the Telegram account of a customer service staff of this Forex platform to help him open an account and invest.

Listening to the customer service staff, Mr. H provided all his personal information, gmail address and phone number to this person to create an account. Then, following the enticement of Thuong and the Forex customer service staff, from December 28, 2021 to February 7, 2022, Mr. H transferred money many times to different account numbers to participate in investment and pay taxes and fees requested by these subjects with a total amount of 307,900,000 VND. In addition, several times Thuong used different reasons such as: his mother was sick in the hospital and needed to pay hospital fees and buy a phone SIM card..., requesting to transfer money and Mr. H transferred money twice with a total amount of 39,000,000 VND.

In the following days, Thuong and the subjects continued to ask Mr. H to transfer money to pay taxes and fees in order to be able to withdraw the investment money. Suspecting that he was being scammed, he asked Thuong to send information, photos of his ID card and address for verification, but the result was that no one had the information or background as Thuong provided, the address Thuong gave Mr. H to arrange a meeting was all fake.

Authorities investigate social media fraud.

After realizing he had been scammed, Mr. H asked Thuong to return the money, but the subject blocked his Facebook, Zalo... and blocked communication, and he could only contact them via the Telegram application. However, via the Telegram application, the subject also threatened Mr. H that if he did not earn money to pay the subjects, his hot and nude photos would be posted on social networks. After that, Mr. H went to the police station to report the incident.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Ha, Head of the Cyber ​​Crime Prevention Team - Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention - Quang Ninh Provincial Police, said that a few years ago, in Quang Ninh province, there were 4 consecutive cases of people using Facebook accounts to defraud 4 women of nearly 3 billion VND in Cam Pha City, Quang Yen Town and Van Don District.

At that time, an account named “James Jerry” made friends with Ms. Tran Thi Nhung (the victim’s name has been changed), residing in Cam Pha City, through Facebook. This person said he was born in 1970, currently lives in the UK and works at Victoria Petroleum Company. A month later, James Jerry said he wanted to give Ms. Nhung jewelry and 500,000 USD.

Then, a person claiming to be an employee of a shipping company called to inform her about the package sent by air from England, and if she wanted to receive it, Ms. Nhung would have to pay various fees. Because she trusted James Jerry, Ms. Nhung transferred a total of 517 million VND 3 times to different accounts of bank branches in Ho Chi Minh City for the above subject. After receiving the money, they turned off the phone and locked her Facebook account.

With the same method and tricks as above, the subjects defrauded and appropriated 716 million VND from Ms. Tran Thi Quynh Huong (victim's name has been changed), residing in Van Don district. According to the victim's report, she knew a person with the account name Jonhson Alexan Dre Chizitere on Facebook. Then Jonhson said he sent clothes, medals, gold, watches to Vietnam for Ms. Huong to keep, the goods would arrive in a few days.

As scheduled, that morning a man named Dinh Le Hoang Khuong called on his cell phone to say that the goods had been shipped to Ho Chi Minh City and asked Ms. Huong to transfer 17.5 million VND to pay the shipping fee. After sending the money, at noon that day, Khuong said that he checked the goods and found 1.5 million USD but did not declare it, so he had to pay a fine of 88 million VND. Ms. Huong asked Johnson about this and trusted him, so she transferred the above amount to Khuong through the account number of a bank branch in Hanoi.

In the following days, Khuong repeatedly made up excuses such as tax evasion, ensuring safe transportation, paying taxes, and asked Ms. Huong to continue transferring money. After receiving 3 times with a total amount of 611 million VND, Khuong continued to ask her to transfer another 600 million VND to complete tax procedures in Hanoi. Because Ms. Huong had no more money, this subject said he would complete the procedure to reduce 50% of the tax and asked her to pay the above amount soon to complete the procedure. Suspecting that she had been scammed, Ms. Huong went to the police to report the incident.

In addition to the two victims above, there are two other cases: Ms. Nguyen Thi T, residing in Cam Pha City and Nguyen Thi N in Quang Yen Town, who were scammed by Facebook users out of more than 1.2 billion VND. According to the investigation results of the above cases, it is known that the subjects often create social network accounts such as: Zalo, Facebook, Whatsapp..., then pretend to be foreigners, single, have a stable job, and have good economic conditions to get acquainted and make friends with the victims. After a period of gaining trust, the subjects offer to give or send valuable gifts such as: laptops, necklaces, jewelry, tablets, foreign currency or offer to send money to the victims for charity.

When the “prey” agrees, the group of subjects in Vietnam will pose as aviation officers, customs officers or airport security officers, express delivery company employees, call and give many different reasons to ask the victim to pay customs clearance fees, pay fines because the gift package contains a lot of USD, hire a lawyer to prove the package is legal... The subjects ask the victim to transfer money to a bank account designated by them, then quickly transfer the money to many different banks, withdraw and appropriate it abroad.

A victim reported being scammed via Facebook.

Don't be gullible and lose your money.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Ha, Head of the Cyber ​​Crime Prevention Team that violates social order and safety - Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department - Quang Ninh Provincial Police, although the tricks of exploiting social networks such as Zalo, Facebook, WhatsApp to defraud and appropriate property have been widely publicized by authorities many times to raise people's vigilance, however, due to gullibility and greed, some people still fall into the trap of these subjects.

Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Ngoc Van, Head of the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department - Quang Ninh Provincial Police, said that compared to before, the methods and tricks of the subjects are more sophisticated. They often use "junk" SIM cards to make calls, and at the same time hire students and freelancers to open accounts at many banks. After receiving the victims' money, they quickly transfer and withdraw money through many different banks, making it difficult to freeze the accounts.

To prevent the above fraudulent behavior, propaganda work still needs to be strengthened in the coming time and right from the residential groups and neighborhoods. In addition, banks need to have regular information exchanges with the authorities, promptly block suspicious accounts before they are dispersed and appropriated.

Tran Thi Bich Tuyen - a subject in a Facebook fraud ring was arrested by Quang Ninh Provincial Police.

Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Ngoc Van emphasized that people must be extremely vigilant when using social networks. Before getting acquainted and making friends, it is necessary to select social network accounts with high authenticity (avoid making friends with fake accounts created by subjects), and verify the information of people you meet online before intending to go further.

In particular, it is necessary to be alert to the enticements and offers of someone who is not accurate, especially the questionable invitations of activities to obtain personal information, account information and fraudulent activities to appropriate assets (currently on the internet environment there are countless types of scams, people need to regularly learn and update to avoid falling into the scam traps set up by these subjects).

Lieutenant Colonel Dinh Ngoc Van noted that in all relationships, caution is not superfluous, especially those from the "virtual" world. The need to get to know, make friends and find your other half through social networks is a legitimate need, however, to avoid falling into the trap of scammers, each individual needs to be alert and refuse all suspicious offers, gifts "falling from the sky", "honey" enticements and promises. When talking or texting on social networks, absolutely do not provide or exchange sensitive information and images to avoid being exploited, controlled and extorted by bad people.