Warning about online scams

Through information recommendations from banks, it can be seen that the scam scenarios are becoming more and more sophisticated. Many forms of scams have been "exposed and named" by banks such as: sending fake website login links, sending and asking the recipient to scan QR codes via Zalo, Facebook, Viber or making video calls,...

Many sophisticated scams

Recently, Vietnam Prosperity Joint Stock Commercial Bank ( VPBank ) issued a warning about a new scam method that is being applied by criminals impersonating bank employees, calling from landline numbers with a series of numbers similar to the bank's switchboard number, inviting customers to increase their credit card limit or withdraw cash from credit cards or some other financial services. Then these people will send and ask customers to scan QR codes.

When customers scan the QR code sent by the scammer, they will be redirected to a fake website link. On this website, the subjects will have instructions asking customers to enter information such as full name, citizen ID, take a photo of both sides of citizen ID, card number, CVV secret code, card expiration date. Customers are also asked to share the OTP code sent to their phone number, user login information and bank account password...

Immediately after the customer provides information, the scammer will gain access to the internet banking account or credit card and make transactions to appropriate money.

Another sophisticated form of fraud that customers need to be highly vigilant about when transacting online is the form of sending "successful transfer receipts". According to Mr. Ta Dinh (Hanoi), after posting an iPhone for sale on his Facebook, a user contacted him via Zalo to buy the product. The buyer then made an appointment with Mr. Dinh to come to a location to pick up the phone. Here, the buyer made the transfer transaction and showed Mr. Dinh the successful transaction receipt.

Although he had not seen the money in his account, he subjectively thought that the transfer to another bank would cause the money to arrive slowly, so Mr. Dinh handed over the phone and returned. The next day, when he checked his account and did not see the money, Mr. Dinh was shocked to realize that he had been scammed and had to report to the police.

According to research, the trick of faking bank transfer receipts is being used by many scammers. With just a few photoshop editing steps, the victim will immediately receive receipts, invoices or transaction documents with the information (full name, bank account, address, etc.) exactly as provided. The recipient will be mistaken that it is a real photo of the transfer or printed invoice, receipt, etc., so they trust and follow.

Notably, the Vietnam National Credit Information Center (CIC) said that recently the agency recorded a number of cases of impersonating CIC to commit fraud, "requiring borrowers to transfer money to personal accounts so that CIC can increase their credit scores and support the loan disbursement process faster".

Accordingly, the scammer uses his knowledge of the financial sector in general and credit information activities in particular, using specialized terms such as "credit", "freeze", etc. to send to the borrower a "processing document" with full fake stamps and signatures to notify the borrower about the current status of "the borrower's credit file having errors, being locked, not having enough credit score to disburse the loan" and asking the borrower to transfer money to the scammer's personal account.

Prevent scams

According to many experts, scams have become much more sophisticated and methodical than before. The nature of online scams will continue to change with the rapid development of technology. Therefore, preventing scams in cyberspace is a long and continuous battle.

Experts advise customers to be extremely cautious with requests to scan QR codes or access strange links; do not provide OTP/Smart OTP authentication codes to anyone, including bank employees; be careful when sharing personal information such as: Personal identification codes, citizen identification cards, driver's licenses, passports, cards, etc. with service providers. In particular, absolutely do not provide card numbers, three security numbers on the back of credit cards or any other personal security information via Zalo or anonymous phone numbers.

In addition, according to research, although the sophistication of scams is increasing, the common point of these scams is that the subjects use "junk" bank accounts to receive money from victims. "No scammer uses the owner's phone number or account number to commit the crime," said Lieutenant Colonel, Dr. Dao Trung Hieu, a high-tech crime research expert.

Therefore, in recent years, the banking industry has been implementing many solutions to "neutralize" "junk" accounts. In particular, the State Bank of Vietnam is actively coordinating with the Ministry of Public Security to deploy the connection of the national population database with the goal of soon completing the reconciliation to clean up more than 51 million accounts, first prioritizing cleaning up data for about 25 million customers with outstanding debt at CIC.

According to Deputy General Director of Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Industry and Trade (VietinBank) Tran Cong Quynh Lan, by using national data resources, the banking industry can “clean up” “junk” accounts, thereby preventing criminals from hiding under the guise of purchased accounts. In addition, the introduction of chip-embedded citizen identification cards will also limit the opening of online accounts using fake documents. Currently, the banking system can read information from chips very accurately, so there will be no more problems with inaccurate data.

Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department (State Bank of Vietnam), said that it is necessary to be more drastic in dealing with SIM cards that are not in the owner's name to create conditions for the banking industry to thoroughly solve the problem of renting and selling accounts. Another problem is that a SIM card is being registered with many bank accounts, so it must also be clearly verified.

We need to be more drastic in dealing with SIM cards that are not in our name to create conditions for the banking industry to thoroughly solve the problem of renting and selling accounts. Another problem is that one SIM card is being registered with multiple bank accounts, so it must also be clearly verified.

Director of Payment Department (State Bank of Vietnam) Pham Anh Tuan

Finally, as in the case of CIC mentioned above, CIC leaders affirmed that this is a form of fraud, impersonating CIC to appropriate customers' money. The above action is illegal and seriously affects the legitimate rights and interests of customers; the image and reputation of the State Bank of Vietnam as well as the credit granting activities of credit institutions.

“CIC only provides credit information reports directly to each borrower according to the provisions of law, through the Borrower Connection Information Portal at: https://cic.gov.vn and “CIC Credit Connect” - an application on smartphones, free of charge once a year. Customers pay for the report exploitation from the second time at a fee of 22,000 VND/report (including VAT).

CIC does not proactively notify and require customers to pay fees for credit facilities provided by credit institutions,” the CIC leader stated. At the same time, CIC recommends that customers do not send OTP codes to anyone; do not follow/transfer money to any individual/organization to have their debt cleared/hidden/credit scores increased; regularly self-check and exploit personal credit reports on the Borrower Connection Information Portal and the smartphone application “CIC Credit Connect” to ensure accurate credit information about themselves, proactively monitor their creditworthiness and credit status.

According to Nhan Dan Newspaper null

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