Taking advantage of the need to purchase supplies and equipment for the new school year, scammers are targeting owners of businesses selling materials and interior equipment...
PHOTO: KHANG KA CREATED BY AI
Impersonation to order equipment purchases
Last weekend, Hoang Dieu High School (Phu Loi Ward, Can Tho City ) announced a case of fraud. Specifically, the school's Board of Directors said that in recent days, a subject used the social network Zalo with the nickname Gia Han, impersonating an officer of Hoang Dieu High School to buy steel for the school. The subject texted a business to buy some steel for the school, including: 45 Dong A steel sheets, 4.5 zem thick, 5.5 meters long; 3 large square steel bars, a total of 69 bars. On July 13, the subject continued to pretend to be the school's accountant and called a furniture store to order 50 sets of beds and mattresses for Hoang Dieu High School, worth more than 200 million, and at the same time asked the owner of the store to transfer a commission. According to the leader of Hoang Dieu High School, the school has no need to buy and sell materials as the subject texted to order. Business owners need to be vigilant to avoid being scammed out of money.
The situation of impersonating schools to contact suppliers of materials and equipment for the purpose of fraud is not unique but has happened in many other places. Recently, Hanoi City Police issued a warning about a case of a subject impersonating a university lecturer to contact a company or business household to order goods such as stationery or school supplies to commit fraud. The subject's method is to place a large order and require the business establishment to choose the correct model of the supplier. Then, the subject asks the business owner to contact a partner to get the source of goods and urges them to get the goods there. In fact, this partner is an accomplice in the fraud ring. When the owner transfers a deposit to get the goods, the subjects will appropriate this amount.
Two weeks ago, a victim named NVV, living in Hanoi, received a call from a person claiming to be a lecturer at a university, asking Mr. V. to carry out a contract to repair the school's facilities worth more than 2 billion VND and urgently ordering 300 bunk beds for the school to serve the inspection work at the beginning of the school year. When Mr. V. quoted the price of the product, the subject said it was not the type the school needed and gave the phone number of a partner who had supplied this type of bed to the school to contact and order.
Mr. V. wondered why he didn't buy directly, but the subject said that he was having trouble with this partner, so he asked him to buy it for him. Because he trusted him, Mr. V. contacted him to transfer the deposit to buy the bed and rubber mattress and asked the "lecturer" to transfer the money back to him. At this time, the subject sent Mr. V. a photo of the successful transfer transaction code and explained that the money would not be transferred immediately because the school's account was a public account, so the money would be delayed for a few hours. After that, Mr. V. went to the school to contact the delivery but was informed that no lecturer had placed such an order. Realizing that he had been scammed, Mr. V. went to the police station to report it. The total amount of money he had been robbed of was nearly 1 billion VND.
Taking advantage of free tuition to scam "tuition refunds"
According to the police, scammers are now closely monitoring market developments as well as researching information about their "prey", building very methodical shopping scenarios to lure victims into their traps. Recently, taking advantage of information that some provinces and cities across the country are exempting tuition fees for students from kindergarten to grade 12, many scammers have used "spam" phone numbers and "fake" social media accounts to call and text parents to notify them of refunds of previously paid tuition fees.
Police warn people to be vigilant against tricks to collect personal information to hack into bank accounts.
PHOTO: SCREENSHOT
To receive tuition fees, scammers ask parents to provide bank account information and OTP codes sent to their phones to complete the procedure. More sophisticatedly, the subjects ask people to access fake school links to create trust and also ask people to provide the above information. The police agency warns: If following the instructions, scammers will quickly hack into people's bank accounts and execute money transfers to appropriate property. Therefore, users should absolutely not provide personal information (photos, videos of faces, ID cards), OTP codes to strangers.
Cyber security expert Ngo Minh Hieu, Director of Chongluadao.vn project, recommends: "Users absolutely do not scan QR Codes or access strange links, download and install applications of unknown origin. Currently, the Chongluadao.vn website has integrated a tool to check if the link is safe. When receiving a strange link sent by someone, before clicking on it, copy the link, then access the website https://ai.chongluadao.vn (on phone or computer), paste the link and click check. The AI system will scan and analyze in a few seconds. If the result is a safe link, users can access it. If it is a scam or fake link, absolutely do not click on it. In case of suspicion of fraudulent property appropriation, people need to promptly report it to the nearest police station for instructions on how to handle it.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/canh-giac-chieu-lua-hoan-hoc-phi-185250714113539988.htm
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