Giving gifts and money after a "love relationship" through social networks
There was a time when online fraud was rampant with a common motif of people in the country being familiar with a "foreigner" sending gifts, including money (mainly USD) to people in the country. It is worth mentioning that this relationship was only known through fighting each other on social networks, even the two had never known each other.
Although it has been a long time, we still cannot forget the story of a female reader who called the Legal Consulting phone number 0961360559 of Lao Dong Newspaper directly.
A reader reads that a foreign lover works in the United Nations force and sends gifts, large sums of money to you and films for readers to see what is in the gift box. Then that person told the reader to deposit tens of millions of VND into an account designated by that person to receive the gifts and money.
Although we have warned that readers may be scammed, this reader still asks us to listen to the whole story. We have tried to explain, but this reader still insists that the reader's love story with the "foreign" is the truth. Knowing that readers have fallen into the common scam trap, we have to "cut" it and give many examples that the press has reported before the readers wake up.
Another similar story, when a reader sent an email to tuvanphapluat@laodong.com.vn of Lao Dong Newspaper, was as follows: "I have a friend in the US that I have only known for a few days. The next day, I saw her send me gifts including an iPhone, a watch, a shirt, pants, a necklace and listened to her add a dollar to help me.
He just sent me a photo at around 2am in a express delivery style and told me that the gift he sent was, please listen to the phone to receive the goods. The next morning, at more than 7:30 a.m., a woman called me saying that she had goods from abroad and said the fee was 15 million VND, so I transferred the money to them to get the goods. But I don't have money. A friend in the US told me to just transfer and get the goods, if I didn't have them, I would borrow them and then take the box to pay back because there was money in the package.
I borrowed money to transfer to the account number sent to me by the woman and her friend in the US. I transferred 15 million VND, the woman called me back to tell me to go to the customs office to check the package with the money and forced me to pay a fine of 100 million VND and have to transfer it to the previous account number.
In the past few days, I have no money to transfer, people in the US told me that if I did not transfer to the customs office, they would come and arrest me because the money in the package was large. Let me ask if I violated the law or was I scammed? ".
Most of the people who call or email to get advice are female, but there are also male readers who email Lao Dong Newspaper like this: "I know a friend in Korea. She was on a mission in Iraq and she gave him a package. Before sending, she did not say and said that after working with the transport unit, she would tell me what was inside and would come to Vietnam to meet me after completing the mission.
When the item was transported to the airport, she told him that she had a lot of money and documents. I am very worried that if I receive the goods from her, I will violate Vietnamese law. If I don't accept it now, it will make her sad. But if he does, he will be violated. See a lawyer for advice".
Bringing the entire US Federal Bureau of Investigation to... defraud
The above are typical examples of stories and emails that readers have called directly or sent emails to ask for advice from the Legal Consulting Department of Lao Dong Newspaper. Some readers were even threatened by scammers to take the US Federal Bureau of Investigation ( FBI)... to prison and spend 24 years in prison if they did not receive the goods from that person. And thanks to the timely advice of Lao Dong Newspaper, these readers have avoided the trap of scammers and the unfortunate consequences.
Lawyer Nguyen Huu Hoc - Director of TDH Legal Company, Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association - said that according to the provisions of Clause 5, Article 25 of the World Postal Convention, metal money, paper money, securities, tourist checks, platinum, gold or silver that have been processed or not, precious stones, jewelry or other valuable items are goods that are not accepted or prohibited from being sent by post. Vietnamese law also stipulates prohibited goods, including Vietnamese currency, foreign currency and documents with the same value as money.
In addition, according to the provisions of the law on administrative sanctions, when a person commits a violation, the competent authority will have to make a record of the violation, on that basis, issue a decision to sanction the violator (there is the person sending the goods) not the recipient. The fine must be paid into the account of the agency/organization (usually the State Treasury or through the account of a certain bank), not into a personal account.
Lawyer Tran Phi Dai - Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association - further analyzed that the scammer's trick is to exploit the victim's trust and, thanks to that trust, the victim hands over the property to the scammer. In addition, there are many victims who, out of greed, unintentionally contribute to the success of scammers. Therefore, just need to be a little more alert and think more carefully, then the above people just need to ask why they are just friends who have just met through social networks, even if they have never known each other, only knowing each other through bad words, but they are good to themselves like that, then they will avoid the risk of being scammed.
