Impersonating Ha Tinh tax officials to defraud newly established businesses and households

Taking advantage of information about newly established businesses and business households made public on the national information portal, scammers impersonated officers of the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department to appropriate property.

In June 2023, Long Hai Trading - Service Company Limited (Thach Xuan Commune, Thach Ha) was established with the registered business of distributing Heineken beer consumer goods in Ha Tinh province. As soon as the tax code was issued, this enterprise received a call from someone claiming to be an officer of the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department, requesting the enterprise to appear for tax declaration or possibly support the enterprise via Zalo.

Long Hai Trading - Service Company Limited (Thach Ha) specializes in distributing Heineken beer consumer goods in Ha Tinh province.

Mr. Ho Sy Long - Director of Long Hai Trading - Service Company Limited said: "They called many times, the avatar on zalo is a tax officer wearing the industry uniform, so at first I thought it was real. The most recent time was on July 29, they suggested using an Android phone to guide the installation of software to support tax incentives for newly established businesses. At this time, I began to have doubts and learn about online fraud tricks. Being cautious, I went to the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department to ask and was confirmed that there was no such thing as a tax officer guiding the installation of software to support tax incentives online. Luckily, I discovered it in time, otherwise if I believed the scammer's words and followed the instructions, the consequences would be extremely unpredictable."

Impersonating Ha Tinh tax officials to defraud newly established businesses and households

Text message impersonating an officer of the Tax Department of Ha Tinh province sent to Long Hai Trading - Service Company Limited (Thach Ha)

Not only businesses, recently, newly established business households and households converting their business forms in Ha Tinh province have also received many calls from people pretending to be tax officials to commit online fraud with extremely sophisticated tricks.

Recently, Le Thi H. (Huong Khe town) converted her business from stationery business to consumer goods business. As soon as she successfully registered for the conversion, Ms. H. received a call asking her to attend a training course at the Ha Tinh Province Tax Department, otherwise her business license would be revoked.

To participate in the training, the subject required a fee of 145,000 VND to buy documents. “I was cautious so I called directly to the Tax Department of Huong Khe - Vu Quang area to ask for information and avoid... fraud traps. However, some other businesses were not as lucky as me, because they were gullible and were cheated of money. It is worth mentioning that the subjects read the information of the facility fluently so many people were not vigilant” - Ms. Le Thi H. in Huong Khe town said.

Faced with the situation of some subjects impersonating tax authorities, using the name of the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department to make profits, recently, the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department has issued notices on the industry's website, Facebook page, and Zalo to warn taxpayers to be vigilant against the trick of impersonating tax officials to call or fax to provide links and instructions for installing software and applications; impersonating tax authorities to appropriate bank account information, assets, and money of taxpayers...

The leaders of the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department affirmed that the tax authority has no policy, nor does it send staff to make phone calls or faxes to provide links and instructions for taxpayers to install software and applications. All documents, materials, and application software are provided free of charge by the tax authority and fully posted on the tax industry's website at: https://gdt.gov.vn; all training programs of the tax authority are organized free of charge and invitations will be sent to taxpayers.

Impersonating Ha Tinh tax officials to defraud newly established businesses and households

Tax authorities issue warnings to taxpayers to be careful of fraudulent schemes.

“To avoid risks, when individuals and businesses receive requests to install software, provide information, organize training, etc., they should directly contact or verify information with the local tax authorities and tax branches via the phone numbers published on the industry's own website. Taxpayers absolutely must not download or install tax authority applications for computers/smartphones through links not provided by the General Department of Taxation; do not allow any individual to directly access their computers/phones to support the installation and use of tax authority software,” Mr. Nguyen Xuan Thuong - Head of the Department of Propaganda and Support for Taxpayers (Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department) emphasized.

Not only raising vigilance, the Ha Tinh Provincial Tax Department also recommends that taxpayers coordinate information and promptly report fraudulent acts to the police or tax departments and tax branches at all levels to have measures to coordinate and handle subjects impersonating tax officials, civil servants, and tax agencies to illegally profit.

Phan Tram

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