Hanoi Convention: Identifying and preventing high-tech fraud

Cybercrime is becoming more prevalent and sophisticated as Vietnam strives to digitize socio-economic activities.

To effectively combat this new type of crime, in addition to the drastic participation of authorities, the cooperation of the whole society plays an important role; especially people need to raise awareness, identify, react properly and proactively share digital safety knowledge to protect themselves and the community.

Technology fraud - the "darkness" of the digital age

In recent times, the use of cyberspace to commit fraud and property appropriation is not a new type of crime, but it is still widespread, complicated, and causes a lot of damage to the property of people and businesses.

Through the propaganda work of the authorities, people have become aware and cautious of strange calls and messages. However, the subjects have been "upgrading" their scam tricks to deal with people's vigilance.

Colonel Tran Hong Minh, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Police, said that most of the scammers today use methods such as: Using higher quality videos , perfect, logical, and more personalized scam messages/emails thanks to the application of new generation AI technology.

Taking advantage of events and opportunities in each specific period to create new scam stories that have not been previously warned about.

Specifically, taking advantage of biometric authentication regulations for bank accounts to impersonate banks to call to support online biometric data updates, taking advantage of the merger of administrative units to impersonate businesses to call to request adjustments to customer information...

“In addition, the subjects have also switched from calling to deceive adults to tricking children (a group of subjects that are more vulnerable to being deceived) to increase the success rate, forming new methods of appropriating property, "online kidnapping"; or impersonating public authorities (Police, Procuracy, Court, Customs...), law offices, banks... to call to threaten and request money transfers or support to recover money that has been defrauded,” Colonel Tran Hong Minh added.

Fraudulent acts in the online tourism sector are becoming increasingly sophisticated. (Illustration photo: Vietnam+)

Sharing about the core factor that makes many people easily fall into the trap of scammers, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Xuan Hieu (Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Dong Nai Provincial Police) said that the core and most common cause is that scammers prey on people's greed and do not exclude people with low awareness.

Depending on the different subjects, the elderly, students, criminals will have different scenarios to deceive, entice, and trap the victims. The basic trick is that when they call, the victims will be led into the story so it is difficult to be sober enough to perceive the incident.

Agreeing with this view, Cybersecurity Expert Ngo Minh Hieu (Director of Chongluadao.vn project) noted: "Cybercriminals today have easy access to new tools and methods. If in the past hackers often worked independently, today there are organizations and gangs that combine and join hands with each other. The tricks are becoming more and more sophisticated, closely following information and current events in the country. Therefore, it is more difficult for people to guard against them."

We need to join hands to prevent and fight cybercrime.

According to statistics from the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (A05), Ministry of Public Security, in the first 8 months of 2025, Vietnam recorded more than 1,500 online fraud cases (an increase of 65% over the same period in 2024) with estimated losses of more than VND 1,660 billion.

More than 4,532 malicious domains were detected (up 90%) with sophisticated tricks such as: deepfake, crypto fraud, OTP hijacking, impersonating police or banks... Not only causing financial damage, cybercrime also threatens digital trust and the national digital transformation process.

Illustration photo.

Discussing solutions to prevent and stop high-tech fraud crimes, Colonel Tran Hong Minh, Deputy Director of Ho Chi Minh City Police, said that the City Police identified prevention, in which propaganda work to help people grasp fraud methods and tricks is the key task to minimize cases of people being deceived; thereby reducing damage to this criminal activity.

In addition, the police force will step up the investigation, detection, arrest and handling of violators; at the same time, coordinate with relevant units and organizations to launch the campaign "Not alone - Together online safety" to improve the effectiveness of prevention work against a new trick that has recently appeared - "online kidnapping."

From the practical experience of participating in the work of preventing and combating fraud in cyberspace in recent times, Cyber Security Expert Ngo Minh Hieu (Director of Chongluadao.vn project) called for the cooperation of the whole society from the authorities to the media and the people through the campaign "All people fight fraud" to raise awareness, encourage people to slow down and verify information before requests to transfer money or provide personal data.

According to Mr. Ngo Minh Hieu, people are acting too quickly when receiving requests to transfer money or clicking on links from criminal organizations without verifying or checking before taking action.

The communication campaign "National anti-fraud" has just been launched by the Vietnam Television Center in Ho Chi Minh City with the joint efforts of many forces such as the National Cyber Security Association and local police (such as Ho Chi Minh City, Dong Nai, Tay Ninh, Khanh Hoa, Lam Dong) along with management agencies, businesses in the Finance and Securities sectors, and media partners.

According to Mr. Tu Luong, Director of Vietnam Television Center in Ho Chi Minh City (VTV9), the campaign is not only a communication activity but also an event of profound political and social significance, demonstrating Vietnam's strong commitment to protecting people in cyberspace and promoting a culture of digital safety for all people.

This campaign is also a response to the “Hanoi Convention” on combating cybercrime - an international event that will take place in Vietnam on October 25-26, affirming Vietnam's pioneering role in creating a safe, transparent and humane cyber environment./.

(TTXVN/Vietnam+)

Source: https://www.vietnamplus.vn/cong-uoc-ha-noi-nhan-dien-va-phong-chong-toi-pham-lua-dao-cong-nghe-cao-post1072388.vnp