Borrowing money online, woman was scammed out of 400 million VND

Recently, taking advantage of the psychology of many people who need to borrow money online to serve their lives, the subjects have impersonated bank officers to defraud and appropriate property. With advertisements of convenient procedures and quick disbursement on social networks, many people have fallen into the trap of the scammers.

Recently, the Cau Giay District Police ( Hanoi ) investigated a fraud case that appropriated nearly 400 million VND with the above method. Accordingly, on October 2, due to the need to borrow money online, Ms. N (born in 1982, residing in Cau Giay, Hanoi) went online to find out and accessed a website with information about bank loans.

Woman was scammed out of 400 million for borrowing money online.

Ms. N texted to borrow 150 million and was instructed by a subject to declare information via a link.

After declaring, the subject informed that the loan had been approved but could not be withdrawn due to an incorrect account, and to correct the error, she had to pay 15 million VND. Ms. N transferred the money but still could not withdraw it. At this time, the subject continued to give many other reasons for her to transfer the money before the disbursement could be made.

The total amount she transferred was nearly 400 million VND. After that, Ms. N realized she had been scammed so she went to the police station to report.

The common trick of these subjects is to impersonate employees of financial companies and large banks to gain trust, then ask borrowers to transfer deposits or pay a certain amount in advance. The subjects lure people by promising quick loans, no need to prove assets, no credit checks and very simple procedures.

However, after registration, they require borrowers to pay service fees, application fees in advance, but then do not disburse the loan. The subject requires users to download fake online loan applications developed to steal personal information, bank account numbers, and even credit card information.

Borrowers who have filled out the information do not receive the loan and also lose important information. Some online lending services initially promise low interest rates, but when disbursed, the terms change, the interest rate suddenly increases, along with unreasonable penalties.

After the borrower cannot repay the debt, the scammers will threaten and terrorize the borrower by calling continuously, sending threatening messages, and even defaming the borrower's reputation on social networks.

In response to the above information, the Department of Information Security ( Ministry of Information and Communications ) recommends that people should be cautious and vigilant against unsecured loan advertisements that are widespread on social networks.

Only borrow money from reputable and licensed financial institutions and banks. Stay away from lending applications and websites of unknown origin or without clear contact information. Before using any online lending service, carefully research information about the company, reviews from other users, and check on official websites or newspapers to verify legitimacy.

Never follow instructions or make money transfers to strangers. Never provide sensitive personal information in any form. Never access strange links. Never share bank account numbers, OTP codes, passwords, or any sensitive information.

In case of suspicion of being scammed, people need to immediately report to the authorities or consumer protection organizations for timely support, resolution and prevention.

Chi Hieu

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