The pain of online kidnapping
The victims were mostly students who were scammed by impersonating police officers, forcing them to stage the kidnapping, then forcing parents to transfer the child's ransom.
Most recently, on the afternoon of August 8, information from the Criminal Police Department - Tay Ninh Provincial Police said that they had just finished working with N.T.H (born in October 2007), residing in Ben Luc commune, Tay Ninh and brought H back to his family after nearly a day of being missing.
Previously, at around 12:30 on August 6, the Criminal Police Department, Dong Nai Provincial Police received a report from Mr. N.V.D (residing in Tran Bien Ward) about his son named N.B.D (18 years old) being held by some unknown subjects and asking the family to transfer 300 million VND, which was money N.B.D borrowed from the subjects.
After receiving the report, the Criminal Police Department took verification measures. At 6:00 p.m. the same day, the Criminal Police Department of Dong Nai Province Police in coordination with the Criminal Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City Police determined that N.B.D was staying at a hotel in Linh Xuan Ward, Ho Chi Minh City, so they approached, reassured him and brought him home and handed him over to his family.
According to Lieutenant Colonel, Doctor of Criminal Science Dao Trung Hieu, the mentality of students is to fear power, fear for reputation and lack the ability to verify reality. "When a person claiming to be a police officer, speaking seriously, using professional words, threatening about " records", "money laundering rings", "having summons"... the victim immediately fell into a state of panic. That is a psychological reaction of being caught up in fear of being punished" - Mr. Hieu analyzed.
Lack of attachment to relatives
Lieutenant Colonel Dao Trung Hieu said that despite having access to the internet, along with continuous warnings from authorities, this does not mean that all students are capable of refuting.
In addition, the mentality of "it's not our turn" makes students not ready to create barriers to resist cognitive resistance. Many students saw the incident through the press, but did not know that the subject had approached them in a similar way, because it was disguised very cleverly" - Mr. Hieu explained.
In addition, according to Mr. Dao Trung Hieu, another factor that makes students fall into the trap is the lack of cohesion with relatives, or the lack of a reliable sharing channel, causing them to fall into situations of doubt. Therefore, when faced with "children", they are often lonely, easily panicked and unconsciously follow the requirements of bad guys.
From the perspective of a psychologist, Mr. Hieu pointed out some signs that children may be being manipulated by bad guys.
The easiest to notice is changes in behavior, emotions and habits of using digital devices. Children start to hide the content of conversations, change passwords, secretly text at night, or have strange statements such as: "So boring here", "I want to go really far", "Someone is willing to pick me up somewhere else"...
In addition, children tend to hide small luggage, prepare money or personal items, and sometimes paint "an ideal future" in a remote place, even though they have never discussed it with their parents.
In many cases, children are injected with fear into their heads by bad guys, such as: "If you say it, they will arrest your parents", or vice versa, paint a sky: "Just go, your life will be different"...
Expert Dao Trung Hieu emphasized that when seeing children separated from their families, cutting off contact with friends, idols of someone with unknown identity online, or suddenly having a need to go out, go away abnormally, parents and teachers need to immediately be vigilant.
