Call after giving birth
Having just given birth less than a month ago, Ms. Nguyen Thi Hong May (name changed, residing in Long Bien, Hanoi City) received a call from a person claiming to be a hospital employee, informing her to hand over a newborn baby's insurance card. After that, this person continued to introduce a Viettel Post employee and instructed her to carry out a transfer transaction related to the delivery of the insurance card. Believing her, Ms. May transferred 7 million VND to a requested account.
After the transaction, the caller informed her that the money transfer had created a delivery record and she had to pay a sum of insurance money each month. Recognizing many unusual signs, Ms. May stopped following the instructions.
“The thing I am most worried about is that they already know my information and my child's information, even know exactly the insurance money I bought. I don't know if I can use this information to make a dossier or continue to defraud anything else afterwards,” Ms. May shared.
Not only impersonating hospital staff or shippers, fraudsters also regularly impersonate law enforcement officials to create psychological pressure, threaten and require victims to transfer money.
On August 2, 2026, Mr. Nguyen Van Tam (born 1957, residing in Nguyen Du commune, Hung Yen province) received a call from a strange phone number. The caller claimed to be "Lieutenant Colonel Ha Van Lam - Head of the Economic Crime Investigation Team of Hung Yen Provincial Police", read both the serial number and asked Mr. Tam to bring his savings book and red book to the bank to transfer money to serve the investigation, on the grounds that he was related to an economic case. Due to fear, Mr. Tam followed a part of the instructions. However, suspecting signs of fraud, in the afternoon of the same day, he directly went to Nguyen Du Commune Police to report the incident.
When thieves know too much information
Network security expert Vu Ngoc Son said that one of the reasons why scams of impersonating shippers and delivery staff are increasing day by day is the situation of personal data leakage. "Wrongdoers can exploit customer information from many sources, including monitoring on smart devices or taking advantage of security vulnerabilities at data storage units" - Mr. Son analyzed.
According to experts, online scams today are no longer simply general messages or calls. Scammers can invest in finding out information about victims, thereby building appropriate scenarios for each person. Knowing the name, address, order information, family status or even some information related to previous transactions makes victims easily believe that the caller is actually an employee of the service provider.
If anyone is sober, they may only lose a small amount. But if they are subjective, they may be lured to larger transactions and lose huge amounts of money," Mr. Son warned.
According to him, to limit the risks from scams related to shippers, people need to change their transaction habits, not transfer money before receiving goods. Instead, they should pay directly to the seller, or in case they are forced to transfer money, it should be done through an e-commerce platform or a reliable intermediary partner.
The Police Agency also recommends that the police agency not work, not issue arrest warrants, summons or request people to transfer money via phone or social networks. When receiving suspicious calls, especially calls impersonating the Police, Procuracy, Court or delivery staff, people should not provide more personal information, bank account numbers, authentication codes or make any other money transfer requests.
