Beware of the trick of faking a kidnapping to force the family to transfer money

According to the case file, at around 3:30 p.m. on July 15, 2025, the Criminal Police Department of Quang Ninh Provincial Police received a report from Ms. NTL's family that her son, H.D.M, was being kidnapped and held for ransom of 300 million VND. The subjects continuously called Zalo, sent photos of M being held, along with threatening and blackmailing words.

Immediately after receiving the crime report, the Criminal Police Department presided over and coordinated with the Hong Gai Ward Police and the police of the wards and communes in the area to quickly organize and use synchronous professional measures to verify and investigate the case. Through the collected documents and evidence, the unit assessed that this was a serious case of fraud and appropriation of property, with the subject using digital technology , building a detailed and meticulous scenario remotely via the internet to manipulate and create psychological pressure, making the victim obey all instructions to transfer money as requested by the subject.

The subjects forged arrest warrants and created situations to force victims to provide family information in order to transfer money.

Using professional measures, officers and soldiers of the Criminal Police Department guided M's family to encourage him not to be threatened, controlled, and fought psychologically with the subjects who called to threaten him so that the subjects would give up and not commit crimes. At around 6:00 p.m. the same day, M returned home safely.

When working with the police, M said that the scammers used many phone numbers impersonating police officers, calling M to inform that M was involved in a money laundering case in Hai Phong and asked M to cooperate with the investigation. Then, the subject used the Zoom platform to lead M to a meeting room with 2 accounts labeled "Ministry of Public Security" and "Procuracy". Here, M was asked to share the phone screen, and at the same time M received a photo of the arrest warrant and bank account freeze issued by the Supreme People's Procuracy regarding M's arrest for a period of 37 days. Taking advantage of the panic and lack of knowledge, they asked M to go to the nearest motel to rent a room and not tell anyone about working with the police in order to create a fake scene of a kidnapping and extortion.

Before that, at about 11:45 a.m. on July 15, 2025, M rode his motorbike with license plate 14AA-XX.XXX from home to find a motel. At about 12 o'clock, M went to a motel near the lake in Hong Gai ward to rent a room. Here, M called his parents, saying that he lost gambling online and asked his mother to transfer money to M to pay off his debt, but M's mother did not transfer it, so the subjects told M to tell her that he was being kidnapped. It is worth mentioning that during the call, M remained in direct contact with the group of scammers, and was taught by the subjects to stage a kidnapping and injury. The subjects also used M's Zalo account and many different phone numbers to send threatening messages and blackmail M's mother, making M's parents believe that their son was in real danger, being monitored by the kidnappers, and immediately prepared the money to transfer as requested.

Through the above incident, the police agency recommends that people, especially students and parents, need to be vigilant against calls and messages from unknown numbers claiming to be authorities; never transfer money without clearly verifying the identity of the requester and the purpose of the transfer. Be alert to signs: requests for confidentiality, video calls with people in uniform, threats of arrest, use of unclear legal language, requests for urgent money transfers...

Ha Tam, Nhu Mai (Quang Ninh Police)

Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/canh-giac-voi-thu-doan-gia-bat-coc-nan-nhan-de-ep-gia-dinh-chuyen-tien-3367260.html