Scam scenario makes both fall into the trap
Mr. Nguyen Viet Hung (name of the character changed) said that he had just become a victim of a sophisticated social network scam. The subject staged a scenario that made two friends call each other: One person thought they were lending money, the other thought they were just helping friends "perform" asking for loans. Taking advantage of this misunderstanding, the fraudsters appropriated the victim's money.
According to Mr. Hung's account, the subject created a Facebook account with the same name and information as his friend Nguyen Van Linh (name of the character changed). From this account, the scammer actively texted to chat and explained that he was using another account to contact because he "did not want his wife to know", because the couple was angry with each other.
After a while of exchange, the subject asked Mr. Hung to call directly to Mr. Linh's official phone number to ask to borrow 20 million VND. The request to call made him more confident, because if only chatting through Facebook, he would still be suspicious. Because the call was made from a familiar phone number and the money receiving account was in Mr. Hung's name, Mr. Linh immediately transferred 20 million VND.
Immediately after receiving the money, Mr. Hung immediately transferred the entire amount to another account as instructed in the conversation on Facebook. About 20 minutes later, the fake Facebook account continued to text him asking him to borrow another 40 million VND in a similar way. However, when Mr. Hung called his friend again, he learned that Linh's account was no longer available, so the transaction could not be carried out.
If Linh still had money and transferred it, I would probably have lost another 40 million VND" - Mr. Hung said.
Until the next morning, when the Facebook account sent a message asking "Have you transferred money to me yet" - Mr. Hung began to suspect. Checking again, all previous messages had been deleted. He immediately called Linh and at this time discovered the truth: Mr. Linh had absolutely not texted about asking for money transfer.
Increasingly sophisticated scams thanks to AI
According to the Ministry of Public Security, in the period from 2020 to 2025, there were 24,295 fraud cases, causing damage of nearly 40,000 billion VND. Most fraud crimes increase annually, but in 2025 alone, fraud crimes have been reduced by more than 20%. Subjects take advantage of new technologies such as: Artificial Intelligence (AI), social network accounts with virtual identities, electronic money; taking advantage of guidelines, policies, state management work, socio-political and economic situation to build fraud scenarios that hit the psychology of victims. Online fraud cases not only cause property damage but also affect financial security, economic security and reduce people's trust in the government and the digital environment.
Mr. Le Phuoc Hoa, Chief Technology Officer of the Anti-Fraudulent Project, said that every day this unit receives hundreds of complaints from people about online scams. Notably, if cybercriminals used to operate according to mass scripts, now with the support of artificial intelligence (AI), scam tactics have been deeply personalized.
Subjects can collect victim information, then use AI to create their own content or scripts to increase persuasiveness. In addition, data leaks on social networks also make access to personal information easier," Mr. Hoa said.
According to Mr. Hoa, as AI becomes increasingly popular and usage costs are low, bad actors can quickly create fraudulent content at very small costs. Meanwhile, the speed of information spread on social networks is often faster than the process of detection and processing. People are advised to be cautious before transferring money, especially with online loan requests.
