A scam to book restaurant parties by phone has appeared in Cua Lo.

Many sophisticated tricks

At around 2pm on May 3, Ms. Ha Thi Nhu Trang, the owner of a hotel and restaurant in Cua Lo town, received a call to book 9 rooms and 5 banquet tables for nearly 30 people. This person claimed to be a member of a working group from Thanh Hoa province, coming to Nghe An for training and was expected to arrive at the restaurant at 8pm the same day.

Ms. Ha Thi Nhu Trang, owner of a restaurant and hotel in Cua Lo town. Photo: Lam Tung

After choosing the dishes and agreeing on each tray costing about 1.8 million VND, the restaurant asked the customer to pay a deposit of 3 million VND. Ms. Trang said: "Right after I asked to transfer the deposit, the subject agreed and immediately informed that the money had been transferred to the account, and sent a photo confirming the successful payment."

Screenshot of messages between Ms. Trang and the scammer. Photo: NVCC

However, by 5pm, the money had not yet been received in her account, so Trang became suspicious. She asked an acquaintance who also used Agribank to transfer 50,000 VND into her account, and she received it immediately. When comparing the sender's transfer confirmation image and the photo the acquaintance had just taken, she discovered some differences in the bank information, the location of the transaction fee, and the QR code. Convinced that it was a scam message, Trang did not prepare the ingredients.

Compare the transfer confirmation image of the sender and the photo taken by an acquaintance. Photo: Lam Tung

At nearly 8 p.m., the subject announced that he would be there in about 20 minutes, asking the restaurant to prepare 10 bottles of wine (each bottle costs 4 million VND) and to buy the right type and place that he recommended. After calling the phone number provided by the subject, Ms. Trang confirmed that the wine shop in Do Luong, far from the restaurant, did not accept wine orders.

Screenshot of messages between Ms. Trang and the scammer. Photo: NVCC

Ms. Trang said: "At that time, the subject kept calling to pressure me, and at the same time sent a photo confirming that he had transferred 20 million VND to me to pay for the wine in advance, but I still did not receive the money. I was already suspicious from the afternoon, so I firmly refused to accept the wine order. Realizing that he could not deceive me, this subject immediately unfriended me on Zalo and blocked my phone number."

Fraudulent form that traps many victims

Immediately after discovering the trap set by the scammers, Ms. Trang posted a warning on her personal Facebook. Right below the post, a business household in Cua Lo town confirmed that they had also been lured by these subjects, however, they had recognized the signs early on to avoid it.

Over the past week, a series of scams in the form of restaurant party bookings have been discovered. The victims are all restaurants and hotels in major tourist destinations such as Da Nang, Da Lat, Dong Nai, etc. Some victims have even lost hundreds of millions of dong. The trick of these subjects is to constantly call and text to pressure, and at the same time take advantage of the holiday season, when restaurants and hotels are crowded, causing the victims to fall into a state of pressure, or because of the crowd of customers, they do not observe carefully. These subjects also have a very sophisticated trick of successfully faking money transfer transactions, making it difficult for the victims to recognize.

Currently, scams are becoming more and more sophisticated, appearing in many forms, so food and beverage businesses and restaurants need to be vigilant against the above methods and tricks to avoid falling into the traps of scammers.