Impersonating delivery staff is becoming more and more sophisticated.

Facebook account Hoang Bach shared a fake citizen ID to gain Ms. NTMA's trust.

One day in early August, Ms. NTMA, 34 years old, residing in Hac Thanh ward, was working at the office when she received a call from the number +84 342 671 940 claiming to be a delivery staff delivering an order worth 12,000 VND. Hearing the name of the item and the value of the money were the same as the order she had placed on TikTok a few days ago, Ms. NTMA agreed to receive the goods and told the delivery staff to put the item through the door and then text the account number to transfer the money. After about 10 minutes, the above staff called to inform that the goods had been delivered and sent the account number and the amount of the goods via text message. Without any suspicion, Ms. NTMA transferred 12,000 VND to account number 100307821, Nguyen Dang Thuan, Vietnam Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade (Eximbank). However, half an hour after transferring the money, Ms. NTMA received a message: "Sister, I'm sorry. I'm new to the job so I'm not familiar with the job. I sent the wrong account number to register for membership. I've added you to Zalo, please take a moment to message the customer service to cancel it for me. This is my fault, I hope you understand." The delivery person then added Ms. NTMA to Zalo. Through Zalo, the delivery person sent Ms. NTMA a link to access, contact the switchboard to cancel the transaction, and receive the money back.

Not seeing Ms. NTMA respond, this person called to explain that if she did not help, he would deduct 3.5 million VND per month, within 3 years. Out of pity, Ms. NTMA accessed the link and saw a Facebook chat with the name Hoang Bach, so she texted to ask for instructions on how to cancel the transaction. After that, Facebook Hoang Bach called Ms. NTMA and asked to record the screen. After many operations, the interface on the phone screen asked to enter a code to an account number also named Nguyen Dang Thuan to cancel the account. At this time, Ms. NTMA suddenly woke up and quickly turned off the phone. Realizing she had been scammed, she called the bank to ask to lock the account. Hoang Bach's account also sent her citizen identification and shared the employee code 388766, and all were fake. Ms. NTMA said that the next day, the other phone number called her again and asked her to continue completing the operation. Otherwise, your file will be uploaded to the system to check and deduct money from your bank accounts. If there is no money deducted, you will become a person with bad debt.

In the case of Ms. NTNhung, 29 years old, Nguyet Vien ward, she was also scammed out of nearly 500 thousand VND because she was gullible. On August 15, Ms. NTNhung received a call from an unknown number, informing her that she had an order worth more than 480 thousand VND from Shopee. Having a habit of ordering online, Ms. NTNhung was no stranger to such calls. After briefly asking about the name of the item and the price, she asked the delivery person to drop the item off at home and quickly transfer the money. Only when she got home and could not find the order and called back the previous delivery person's number that could not be reached did Ms. NTNhung realize she had been scammed. Ms. Nhung shared: "When talking on the phone, the delivery person knew my name, address, order code, shop name... so I was subjective."

Luckily, Ms. D.T.Nga, 39 years old, Hac Thanh ward, received a call from an unknown number with a Southern accent and informed about an order, asking her to transfer money. However, when she saw that the delivery staff in the Northern region spoke with a Southern accent and the item she ordered last night had arrived today, Ms. D.T.Nga asked for more information about the order, then made an appointment to receive it in the afternoon, but the other end of the line hung up.

In fact, the scam of impersonating delivery staff has appeared for many months now. The subjects will monitor livestream sales on social networking platforms, such as Facebook, TikTok... to determine if customers have ordered products. Then, they take the contact information and ordered items of customers from comments and public messages to collect information about the buyer. With basic information, the subjects call and pretend to be delivery staff to scam. They often call during business hours, if the customer says they are not home, they will say they left the goods at the door, in the yard or sent to an acquaintance's house to request payment for the order. For high-value orders, after receiving the money, they will block the number and cut off contact. For low-value orders, the subjects will act as if they sent the wrong order, asking them to click on the link leading to the fake website of the delivery unit and then asking them to enter personal information, bank account and enter the OTP code...

To combat this type of crime, it is necessary to have closer involvement of authorities, cyber security forces, banks, transportation units... in protecting customer information. However, according to Thanh Hoa Provincial Police, measures to prevent online fraud are only at a relative level, the main and most important issue is that each citizen needs to protect themselves. If people consider their bank account as a house where they keep their money, the key to "open the door" is strange links, account security information (username, password, OTP code), card services (card number, OTP code)... Therefore, when participating in social networks, anyone, whether the account is strange or familiar (because the account is also taken over by bad guys) who wants to "borrow the key" to enter your house must immediately refuse. Currently, postal and delivery companies have websites and applications to look up shipping code information, so people should proactively access them to track the order's progress, ensuring that the order is correct before receiving the goods. If people discover or suspect that they have been scammed, they should quickly report to the nearest police station for timely guidance and resolution.

Article and photos: Tang Thuy

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/gia-danh-nhan-vien-giao-hang-nbsp-lua-dao-ngay-cang-tinh-vi-258975.htm