Helplessly watching loved ones fall into online scams.

Truc Anh, an employee at a media company in Hanoi, shared the story of a colleague who recently lost a large sum of money to online scammers. In just a few days, her friend lost hundreds of millions of dong, despite initially appearing cautious and asserting that she would not deposit any money to avoid being exploited by fraudsters.

"If we had met in person, I might have thought they were casting a spell or hypnotizing my friend, but the fact that she blindly followed their instructions after just chatting online is inexplicable," Truc Anh shared. She said that she refused immediately after her friend suggested she join, and tried to dissuade her, but to no avail. The media employee even enlisted the help of a few friends to help her colleague "wake up from the dream of getting rich quick," but still couldn't avoid watching her friend being scammed out of a large sum of money.

According to the scammer, the victim joined a group reviewing apps for a "foreign entity with no legal status in Vietnam," working online but earning between 500,000 and 1 million VND per day. The amount could increase depending on the amount deposited to "level up." Because of the high profits in a short time, the victim was drawn into the scheme and followed the scammer's instructions, encouraging them to deposit money to "increase the number of apps reviewed and the value paid, thereby raising their income."

However, after just a few upgrades, the scammers quickly disappeared with all the money the victims had transferred to them.

Nhiều vụ lừa đảo trực tuyến vẫn xảy ra dù đã có nhiều cảnh báo được phát đi — Many online scams still occur despite numerous warnings.

Luu Hong, an administrative and human resources specialist for a financial company in Hanoi, found herself in a similar situation when a colleague invited her to review websites and applications for a commission. Hong immediately refused, believing that "nothing is free, and there's no such thing as easy work with high pay."

Recently, social media also shared the story of a victim who panicked after being scammed out of over 800 million VND. "I've been scammed out of all my money, I have nothing left. In just two days, I'm penniless. Now I don't know what to do," the victim, named Hanh, pleaded with her friend. Previously, she joined a group on social media to earn money online and borrowed from many relatives whenever the scammers used excuses like being short of money, incorrect password, incorrect syntax, etc., to ask her to deposit more money into her account so they could withdraw the money she had previously paid.

According to a technology expert, the above case is one of the variations of online scams that users are familiar with. Common examples include impersonating e-commerce platforms to recruit collaborators to place orders and pay high commissions, or recruiting part-time workers to boost sales for brands.

"Regardless of the initial method, these online scams are based on the desire for easy work with high pay and a quick increase in income among a large number of users. The common scenario is that they create a chat group with victims and many accomplices mixed in, acting as 'decoys' to show off bonuses, even sending private messages to victims to build trust. After a few times of letting users enjoy the attractive income, they start giving various reasons and variations of the scenario to trick victims into depositing money, which they eventually cannot withdraw," the expert summarized.

A security expert from the Anti-Fraud Project noted that victims of online scams often hesitate to report to authorities for various personal reasons. In addition, there's a tendency to "ignore it for the sake of peace," or victims may simply be unaware of the procedures for reporting to authorities.

Not only do these scammers exploit the desire for "easy jobs with high pay," but they also constantly change their methods, continuing to "milk" gullible people by posing as lawyers, consultants, or support units to recover lost money and demanding a partial upfront payment. In reality, the victims end up losing even more money.

In many cases of online fraud, the chances of recovering lost money are very low. Therefore, according to the Information Security Department ( Ministry of Information and Communications ), people must equip themselves with the necessary knowledge to protect themselves and avoid falling into online fraud traps. In 2022, the Vietnam Information Security Warning Portal (address https://canhbao.khonggianmang.vn ) recorded more than 12,935 reported cases of online fraud nationwide. Of these, fraud aimed at misappropriating finances (money and other assets) accounted for the majority, with 75.6% of detected cases falling into this category.

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