Illustrative image (Photo: Internet) Hanoi (VNS/VNA) - Online scams have become more and more common in recentyears, causing a great deal of anxiety in society.
Criminalshave even telephoned or texted victims pretending to be police and procuracyofficers or the victims’ friends and relatives and tell them to send money totheir bank accounts.
Nguyen TruongViet, a resident of Hanoi’s Thanh Tri district, is still angry about losing a largeamount of his savings.
“In April, Ireceived a phone call of a man who said to be a postman of the Hanoi PostOffice,” Viet recalled.
“He saidthat I had a letter from HCM City Police. Then he asked me to get it from thepost office immediately,” Viet said.
To get Viet’strust, the man gave him a telephone number and said it was the police’snumber.
“I checkedthe number on the internet and found it was the HCM City police,” Viet said.
Three hourslater, a man called Viet saying he was a lieutenant of the HCM City’s criminalpolice and asked Viet come to the police station to clarify a banktransfer suspected to relate to money laundering.
Then, theman asked Viet to transfer all the money, which amounted to more than VND 100million he had saved to buy an apartment, in his bank account to anotheraccount to let the police investigate whether Viet was involved in the moneylaundering or not.
Because hebelieved the man was a policeman and was afraid of being convicted of a crime, Vietdid as he asked.
Viet is oneof many victims of online scammers recently.
According toHanoi police, this type of crime has appeared in recent years.
Thecheaters’ tricks were to use technology, anonymise phone numbers or hack phonenumbers with phone software via the internet to be identical to the publicphone numbers of the police or procuracy offices to call people reporting theywere being sued for debts or were being investigated by the police, said LieutenantColonel Dao Trung Hieu, a criminological expert of the Hanoi Police.
The scammersalso send arrest and home search warrants from the police and People'sProcuracy and ask the victim to declare the assets and money in bankaccounts.
After that,the scammers threaten to detain the victims to investigate and tell themto transfer money or read the OTP code for them to make a money transfer totheir accounts under the pretext of investigation.
It isdifficult to get back the money because after receiving victims' money, thescammers withdraw it from ATMs, said the policeman.
Scammerscould also use telecommunications and internet networks to fraudulently hijackFacebook and Zalo accounts to pretend to be relatives or acquaintances toborrow money, ask to buy phone cards or receive money from abroad, theLieutenant Colonel said.
“When usingFacebook and Zalo accounts, users must activate two-layer security and createalerts when strange devices are logged in as well as quickly alert friendswhen the account is taken to prevent scamming,” he said.
“Peopleshould not publish personnal information on social networks,” he suggested./.
Criminalshave even telephoned or texted victims pretending to be police and procuracyofficers or the victims’ friends and relatives and tell them to send money totheir bank accounts.
Nguyen TruongViet, a resident of Hanoi’s Thanh Tri district, is still angry about losing a largeamount of his savings.
“In April, Ireceived a phone call of a man who said to be a postman of the Hanoi PostOffice,” Viet recalled.
“He saidthat I had a letter from HCM City Police. Then he asked me to get it from thepost office immediately,” Viet said.
To get Viet’strust, the man gave him a telephone number and said it was the police’snumber.
“I checkedthe number on the internet and found it was the HCM City police,” Viet said.
Three hourslater, a man called Viet saying he was a lieutenant of the HCM City’s criminalpolice and asked Viet come to the police station to clarify a banktransfer suspected to relate to money laundering.
Then, theman asked Viet to transfer all the money, which amounted to more than VND 100million he had saved to buy an apartment, in his bank account to anotheraccount to let the police investigate whether Viet was involved in the moneylaundering or not.
Because hebelieved the man was a policeman and was afraid of being convicted of a crime, Vietdid as he asked.
Viet is oneof many victims of online scammers recently.
According toHanoi police, this type of crime has appeared in recent years.
Thecheaters’ tricks were to use technology, anonymise phone numbers or hack phonenumbers with phone software via the internet to be identical to the publicphone numbers of the police or procuracy offices to call people reporting theywere being sued for debts or were being investigated by the police, said LieutenantColonel Dao Trung Hieu, a criminological expert of the Hanoi Police.
The scammersalso send arrest and home search warrants from the police and People'sProcuracy and ask the victim to declare the assets and money in bankaccounts.
After that,the scammers threaten to detain the victims to investigate and tell themto transfer money or read the OTP code for them to make a money transfer totheir accounts under the pretext of investigation.
It isdifficult to get back the money because after receiving victims' money, thescammers withdraw it from ATMs, said the policeman.
Scammerscould also use telecommunications and internet networks to fraudulently hijackFacebook and Zalo accounts to pretend to be relatives or acquaintances toborrow money, ask to buy phone cards or receive money from abroad, theLieutenant Colonel said.
“When usingFacebook and Zalo accounts, users must activate two-layer security and createalerts when strange devices are logged in as well as quickly alert friendswhen the account is taken to prevent scamming,” he said.
“Peopleshould not publish personnal information on social networks,” he suggested./.
VNA
