Ha Nam Provincial Police recently issued a warning about signs of fraud through the form of calling for Buddhists to support overcoming the consequences of the fire at Phat Quang pagoda (Thanh Phong commune, Thanh Liem district, Ha Nam province).
Previously, on January 20, 2025, Phat Quang pagoda suffered a serious fire that caused damage to about 200 square meters. Immediately after the incident, many fanpages named Phat Quang Pagoda appeared on Facebook continuously posting articles calling on Buddhists across the country to join hands in donating, with information about transferring money to an account named TRAN THANH TRUC, account number 0110699914 at VIKKI Bank (Dong A Bank).
Ha Nam Provincial Police determined that these fanpages have changed their names many times, showing signs of running ads to spread articles calling for charity, increasing interaction and reaching out to people to appropriate money.
Not only Phat Quang Pagoda, but many other pagodas across the country have also had their fanpages forged to gain the trust of the people.
In early April 2025, Bac Giang Provincial Police informed that after the fire that occurred on the morning of February 10, 2025 at Lang Ve Pagoda (Tho Xuong Ward, Bac Giang City), a number of Facebook accounts used images, information of the incident and impersonated a monk to stay in the pagoda to call for Buddhists inside and outside the country to donate to restore the pagoda.
One of the notable fake pages is the fanpage named "13 Happy Doas", posting many images of the fire with a call to focus on repairing and rebuilding the pagoda. The account to receive the donation is stated as Nguyen Thanh Luan, account number 1904094467017.
Due to the sophisticated form of fake, many people and religious believers mistakenly think that this is the official fanpage of the temple, thereby transferring money with the desire to contribute to the temple, without knowing that the fraudulent object has been helped. The abbot of Village Pagoda later affirmed that the pagoda did not use any social network account and had no activities to call for contributions online.
Talking to Lao Dong, criminologist, Dr. Dao Trung Hieu assessed that taking advantage of the development of science and technology, fraud crimes to appropriate property are complicated, increasing rapidly in the number of cases and subjects, causing public outrage, especially in the context of economic life facing many difficulties.
"The subjects move to cyberspace, the anonymousness is very high, a criminal act from abroad can immediately endemic to Vietnam. There are even underground forums of hackers teaching each other tricks, tricks, and psychological manipulation of victims. Meanwhile, the possibility of us detecting, investigating, and handling it thoroughly is also very difficult. There are cases that require banks to block cash flow, but banks require many procedures, including a decision to prosecute the case. And all the accounts used by the subjects are unidentified accounts, there are forums specializing in selling such accounts" - Dr. Dao Trung Hieu analyzed.
In the context of increasingly sophisticated cybercrime, access to legitimate information from authorities is extremely important. Currently, the Ministry of Public Security has deployed official information channels on Facebook and Zalo to provide information on the Party's guidelines and policies, the State's laws and policies, along with timely warnings about cybercrime and new forms of fraud, helping people to raise their vigilance.
