Got scammed twice in one day
Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc (name changed, residing in Lao Cai) is one of many victims who fell into the trap of scammers. For many days, Ms. Ngoc "swallowed her bitterness" by not telling anyone about her scam until a relative of hers was also scammed with the same trick.
According to Ms. Ngoc, on the afternoon of December 12, 2024, a person impersonating KOLs (online celebrities) said that the work at home job requires a large number of followers and viewers of videos on demand; each video is paid; the commission is up to 40,000 VND/video. In one day, she can receive from 200,000 - 300,000 VND, receiving salary by shift (30 minutes/shift) with flexible hours.
"My job is to watch 10 videos, take screenshots 10 times and deposit money to wait for the commission. For example, deposit 300,000 VND and complete all the above tasks, the application will transfer 360,000 VND back. They said that all data has 100% capital insurance, withdraw after 15 minutes" - Ms. Ngoc recalled. Initially, Ms. Ngoc only spent 100,000 VND, received 175,000 VND, the interest was 75,000 VND to try the job. Seeing that receiving interest was too easy, Ms. Ngoc started to fall into the trap from here. The total amount of money she was scammed was up to 60 million VND.
Having no money to continue to deposit as the subjects said, Ms. Ngoc borrowed money from friends and relatives. At the same time, she joined Facebook groups called: "Fraud warning"; "Warning of working online at home"... to share her story, hoping to get back some of the money she lost.
However, as soon as she became a member of the above groups, dozens of strangers texted her with the same question: "Are you also a victim of fraud? How much money were you scammed?". Then, these people sent her other Facebook accounts and said that she only needed to contact and send the fee to the "lawyer" to get her money back.
Next, the subject with the fake Facebook nick Pham Thanh Thao sent the link to another Facebook named Le Quoc Tien and introduced: "This guy is a famous lawyer, I also received the money I was scammed thanks to him, please contact him to ask how he can get the money back". The subject said that the cost to get the money back is 20% commission, the more money you get back, the higher the cost.
"The price to hire my lawyer was 12 million VND. At that time, I was also suspicious and only transferred 5 million VND to deposit the cost. But after receiving the money, they immediately blocked contact with me" - Ms. Ngoc recounted.
Beware of many sophisticated tricks
Speaking with Lao Dong, lawyer Nguyen Trong Nghia - Hanoi Bar Association - said that recently, many social networking sites have appeared impersonating authorities, cyber security experts, lawyers... posting services to get money back for victims who lost money due to fraud in securities, cryptocurrency... The subjects take advantage of cyberspace to commit acts of appropriating the assets of victims with sophisticated methods and tricks such as: Taking advantage of information of organizations and individuals such as lawyers, police... to create trust with the victims.
Lawyer Nghia also advised that people should absolutely not share their personal information, bank accounts, phone numbers and addresses on websites and with strangers. When buying and selling on the Internet, do not pay before receiving the product or service...
The Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (Ministry of Public Security) recommends that people, especially victims of fraud and property appropriation on cyberspace: Absolutely do not listen to or contact websites, fanpages, social network accounts advertising services of "receiving documents", "supporting the recovery of suspended money", "recovering fraudulent money"... on cyberspace; Do not transfer money to the above subjects for guidance and completing documents.
