Focus on managing e-commerce business activities

Buying and selling goods and services on e-commerce platforms or social networks such as Facebook, Zalo, TikTok is becoming increasingly popular, bringing many benefits to both sellers and buyers, becoming an important distribution and consumption channel for products. However, this large "playground" is also being exploited by subjects to trade in smuggled goods, goods of unknown origin, counterfeit goods, and even banned goods, seriously affecting consumer confidence and causing damage to legitimate businesses.

Market Management forces seized illegal goods at a warehouse in My Tien commune (My Loc).

In the first months of 2024, the member departments of the Provincial Steering Committee for Anti-Trade Fraud have coordinated to detect many cases of law violations when doing business on e-commerce platforms. In particular, the Market Management Department coordinated with the police force to detect and handle dozens of violations, imposing fines of nearly 100 million VND for many acts such as: displaying and selling counterfeit goods; trading in goods of unknown origin; not notifying the e-commerce website to the competent State management agency as prescribed before selling goods or providing services to consumers; Violating goods focus on product groups such as cosmetics, food, electronics, fashion ... The provincial Tax Department has also had solutions to strengthen the management and tax collection of individuals and business households with e-commerce business activities through social networks, e-commerce trading floors, through COD intermediary organizations, logistics and individuals providing digital information content services and products (advertising, software, copyright). On average, the amount of tax from e-commerce activities in the province has been paid to the State budget about 3 billion VND/month. The police force has detected, prosecuted and investigated dozens of cases related to high-tech crimes.

This number is actually too small compared to the actual situation of e-commerce business activities. It is very difficult for authorities to manage individuals doing online business via social networks because these businesses often do not register their business, do not have a clear business address or residence, use a different name to register an online account than their real-life name... and do not even sell actual goods. Many people do e-commerce business in Vietnam but are not limited by space and time of transactions between sellers and buyers, are related to foreign factors, and are not granted and managed by domain name registration organizations in Vietnam. Creating an account for commercial transactions or canceling it is very simple, not bound by any regulations. When discovered and traced by the phone number provided by the subject for contact when selling goods, the subject intentionally does not answer the phone to avoid inspection by authorities and quickly erase traces of violations. This is a loophole that many organizations and individuals take advantage of to trade in smuggled goods, counterfeit famous brands, without invoices and documents. Meanwhile, the task of managing e-commerce is the responsibility of many ministries and branches such as: The Ministry of Finance presides over and coordinates with relevant ministries and agencies on tax payment and state budget collection. The Ministry of Public Security presides over and coordinates with relevant ministries and agencies to promote the progress of connecting the national population database with databases and information systems of ministries, branches and localities to carry out electronic identification and authentication; synchronize population data with household registration, tax, banking data... to serve the identification and authentication of individuals and organizations to prevent acts of fraud, tax evasion and scams in e-commerce activities. The Ministry of Information and Communications shall preside over and coordinate with relevant ministries and agencies to develop technological solutions to strengthen the monitoring and management of transactions in the online environment, combat commercial fraud, trade in counterfeit goods, counterfeit goods, goods that violate intellectual property rights, and protect consumer rights.

To strengthen the fight against fraud and scams in cyberspace and livestream sales, relevant agencies need to actively participate. In particular, focusing on propaganda in the press, grassroots information systems, via text messages and social networks to raise people's awareness of the behaviors, methods and tricks of criminals in cyberspace, and basic skills to ensure personal information. The Department of Information and Communications directs network operators to standardize subscriber information as a basis for verifying violations in e-commerce; deploy training courses and digital skills training for people, including disseminating knowledge about network information security and preventing online fraud for people in rural areas. Functional forces such as Market Management, Tax, and Police use synchronous professional measures to combat this type of crime, as well as disseminate and guide people to actively provide information about crimes and law violations on cyberspace through phone numbers and hotlines of functional agencies, through the VNeID App of the Ministry of Public Security, Electronic Information Portal... The State Bank of Vietnam , Nam Dinh Province Branch, has done a good job of propagating and warning people about the methods and tricks of criminals who take advantage of the electronic payment system to commit crimes and reviewing, checking, and detecting bank accounts using Internet Banking services and e-wallet applications to conduct suspicious transactions related to crimes and law violations.

To avoid becoming a victim of online scammers, before deciding to shop online, people need to choose a reputable shopping address, clearly disclose the address, seller's identity, and transparent payment methods... to avoid "losing money and getting into trouble".

Article and photos: Nguyen Huong

Source: https://baonamdinh.vn/kinh-te/202408/chu-trong-quan-ly-hoat-dongkinh-doanhthuong-mai-dien-tu-5f453f6/