Many large corporations and brands have been impersonated to scam people looking for jobs - Illustration photo AI: DUC THIEN
According to reports from cybersecurity organizations, the damage caused by online fraud in 2024 is estimated to reach VND18,900 billion, but the rate of reporting is still very low.
Lost billions because of fake customers
Mr. Vo Dang, the owner of an advertising company, said that in just a few hours, he was scammed out of a total of 157 million VND by a group of people impersonating representatives of a university. After introducing themselves as new staff in charge of the school's facilities, replacing the old one who "had been disciplined", the group placed 10 teaching boards, then added 60 beds for boarding students.
This group gave the excuse that " The Ministry of Education and Training has approved the budget, but the goods must be available by 7pm for inspection, the ministry will come tomorrow morning to accept", asking Mr. Dang to arrange things quickly. Because he could not produce in time, Mr. Dang sought help from many acquaintances but was unsuccessful. At that time, the "customer" proactively sent him 4 phone numbers of the "goods source", but only one number answered the phone and quoted a price.
Mr. Dang reported the exact amount, without any profit margin, with the hope of building a long-term relationship with the university. The total value of the order (board and bed) was up to 233 million VND. The "customer" sent a picture of the transfer order from a major bank to create trust. When he responded that the money had not yet been in his account, they explained that the transaction was "stuck" because it was the weekend.
The "supplier" urged him to pay an advance of 47 million VND to deliver the goods on time. Not stopping there, the "customer" continued to order 60 more mattresses, and urged Mr. Dang to transfer more money to meet the deadline.
"They continuously sent images of fake money transfer orders, totaling up to 470 million VND. I myself transferred 157 million VND in real money to the "ghost supplier", Mr. Dang said.
Seeing that he was still able to advance the money, the group continued to use the excuse that students lacked blankets and pillows. They offered a price of 4 million VND for each set (including a body pillow, a bed pillow, and a blanket), ordered 120 sets (equivalent to 480 million VND) and asked him to transfer 200 million VND in advance.
"At that time, I was startled and began to doubt. The requests became more and more unreasonable. I remembered that making contracts and editing photos is very easy now. I realized that I had been scammed, so I immediately stopped," Mr. Dang said.
Later, Mr. Dang discovered that many other business owners in the industry had also become victims of similar tricks. There was a case of being scammed out of up to 1.2 billion VND.
The group still used the old scenario: placing boards, beds, pillows, computers..., sending fake money transfer images to fool people. Mr. Vinh, director of a travel and event organization company (HCMC), also said that he almost became a victim of a similar scam.
"They pretended to be officials of a famous university, saying they were about to organize a big event, needed to order fresh flowers and many other items, and sent along very realistic pictures of the samples.
But when I asked to transfer money, they only sent a picture of the transfer order, giving all kinds of excuses. Luckily, I was not in a hurry so I discovered it and stopped it in time," said Vinh.
Illustration photo AI: TAN DAT
Businesses impersonate and defraud job seekers
Meanwhile, many workers have also been scammed by groups impersonating human resources departments of large companies and corporations.
The victims are often new graduates, job seekers, lured by information posted on recruitment groups, fanpages or fake websites. Having just graduated from university, Uyen Vy (23 years old) went on Facebook to look for job opportunities.
By chance, when visiting a recruitment fanpage of a corporation that owns a well-known milk brand, Vy was introduced by a "recruiter" that the personnel screening process of this corporation is quite strict.
Round 1 will be an online survey and round 2 will be a direct interview with the leader. After completing the survey, the candidate will receive an email asking to send a CV (summary of education and work experience), and at the same time, requesting to install the Signal application for further discussion.
During the calls and messages sent via the Signal application, the scammer always promised Uyen Vy that she would have "long-term development opportunities", "high salary", and "professional environment".
From a candidate who wanted to work as a communications officer with a salary of 12 million VND/month for a large corporation, Uyen Vy was suddenly led into a spiral of having to deposit money to perform a series of tasks and receive commissions. In the end, she lost more than 25 million VND in just a few days.
Notably, many subjects impersonated this corporation to post recruitment ads in all provinces and cities, with a diverse list of positions such as: warehouse staff, forklift drivers, veterinarians, sales staff, technicians - production line supervisors, electrical maintenance technicians - garages, administrative staff, receptionists, human resources specialists...
Job postings often offer attractive starting salaries, from 8 to 15 million VND/month, with a commitment to a one-month probationary period with full salary, working 5 days/week, and many benefits.
Similarly, Ms. Thuy (living in Ho Chi Minh City) also fell into a trap when applying for a customer care position at a large FDI enterprise, through the enterprise's website.
To get the job, she was asked to go through two rounds of knowledge tests and "supporting projects in conjunction with partners", before being guided to contact via Google Chat and the Tescenter platform. When she got to round 2, she was asked to provide a bank account number.
Shortly after, she received a "bonus" of 150,000 VND as a congratulation for passing the first round. Next, she had to "demonstrate her ability to participate in real projects", guided by another person. After a while, via phone, her "superior" asked her to deposit 100,000 VND into an account provided by this person, to complete the task, affirming that she could withdraw it easily and receive a commission.
After the total amount of money deposited was nearly 30 million VND, she discovered that she had been scammed and reacted strongly. She was immediately kicked out of the chat group.
"When I calmly checked again, I discovered that the email address and recruitment website did not match the official address of the group. When I checked carefully, I discovered that the domain name had only been created a few months ago, and the registrant was an individual, not an organization," Ms. Thuy said.
Scams continue to rage
According to the Vietnam Cyber Security Report 2024 by the National Cyber Security Association, online fraud continues to be rampant as one in every 220 smartphone users will fall victim to fraud, with estimated losses of up to VND18,900 billion in 2024.
However, the reality shows that the number of victims of fraud is large but the number of people who can get their money back is very small. When falling into a fraud trap, although 88.98% of people said they immediately warned and discussed with relatives and friends, only 45.69% of respondents said they reported to the authorities, this is a quite low rate.
Meanwhile, according to experts from the association, reporting to the authorities when encountering fraud is essential to protect the rights of the victims and prevent illegal acts.
Accordingly, reporting will help authorities have timely information to investigate and collect evidence, thereby increasing the ability to arrest and handle fraudsters. Reporting can also help victims recover part or all of the stolen property, especially when the authorities have frozen the related property.
Furthermore, each reported scam will contribute to building a database of the tricks and methods of operation of the subjects, thereby warning the community and preventing the subjects from continuing to commit fraud, causing damage to many other people.
Mr. Vu Ngoc Son, head of the technology department of the National Cyber Security Association, said that online fraud will continue to be rampant in 2025. Therefore, in addition to measures from management agencies, people still need to raise their vigilance and safety skills when participating in cyberspace.
"Do not share personal information with strangers or untrusted services. Carefully verify any calls or exchanges related to money transfers. Use the nTrust anti-fraud application to filter and block fraudulent phone numbers and malicious websites," Mr. Son recommended.
Old scenario, new victims
According to a recent survey by Google, job scams are one of the five most common forms of fraud in Vietnam's cyberspace recently. Scammers target people looking for remote work and job opportunities with attractive income levels.
Accordingly, scammers post fake job postings on reputable recruitment websites and social networks, then conduct professional video interviews and detailed onboarding processes, often impersonating international companies in the fields of cryptocurrency trading or digital marketing.
In addition to demanding upfront fees and stealing data, this scam also entices victims to engage in money laundering or other illegal activities. Victims may unwittingly be drawn into financial transactions or cryptocurrency transfers, leading to serious legal consequences for being involved in illegal activity.
Google recommends that Vietnamese people be cautious of "too good to be true" job offers, especially those involving money transfers.
“Legitimate employers never ask for expenses during the recruitment process or use personal accounts for business,” the advisory states.
Many Facebook pages impersonate large businesses to advertise recruitment, but in reality they lure people into scam traps - Photo: QUANG DINH
Many big brands are impersonated to scam
According to Tuoi Tre's investigation, in recent times, a Facebook page impersonating the Vietnam National Industry and Energy Group (Petrovietnam) has continued to appear to post recruitment information with attractive salaries and high career advancement opportunities. However, the email address for receiving recruitment is not from the group. Petrovietnam has also warned people, and affirmed that the group does not post recruitment information on social networking channels such as Facebook; does not use the Signal application to exchange information...
Another famous enterprise, THACO, has also received many reports of counterfeiting its brand, member enterprises, and even companies in provinces and cities through recruitment methods. Accordingly, scammers use many sophisticated methods such as posting recruitment information, running ads on fake fanpages of THACO and member enterprises, using logos, images, and information of the brand to deceive candidates. Contacting candidates directly via social networking platforms and messaging applications such as Signal, Lotus, Telegram, etc. to request personal information and participate in unofficial recruitment activities. Then, they give reasons such as deposits, reservation fees, training fees, etc. to ask candidates to transfer money, etc.
Recently, the job recruitment platform TopCV Vietnam (TopCV) also warned of many cases of impersonation to post recruitment information on many social networking sites and websites. Bad guys take advantage of the TopCV name to approach job seekers with attractive job offers such as: product evaluation, seasonal work, overtime work... with attractive salaries, and then defraud the victims. The sales management platform Sapo also warned of the situation of impersonating Sapo's recruitment department to defraud candidates into paying trial fees as well as depositing money, doing tasks to accumulate points...
Source: https://tuoitre.vn/doanh-nghiep-sap-bay-don-hang-ao-bi-gia-mao-tuyen-dung-20250708075337885.htm
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