Dating 'Singaporean doctor' via Tinder, woman was scammed out of 5.4 billion VND

Hanoi City Police said that in early March, the Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department received a complaint from Ms. T. reporting that 5.4 billion VND had been stolen.

Ms. T. said that she joined the dating app Tinder and met a man who introduced himself as a doctor at a large hospital in Singapore. After gaining trust with Ms. T., this man invited her to join the virtual currency game.

Hanoi City Police advise people to be vigilant when participating in online dating applications. (Illustration photo)

The first time, Ms. T. deposited 20 million VND and immediately withdrew 30 million VND. Ms. T. continued to deposit 266 million VND and withdrew 304 million VND. After 2 deposits, Ms. T. earned a profit of 48 million VND, an interest of 16.8% of the principal she invested within 2 days.

Ms. T. continued to deposit 300 million VND and was notified that "the account won 10.1 billion VND" but could not withdraw the money. The system notified that "must pay 20% of the profit for personal income tax". Ms. T. paid 1.7 billion VND for personal income tax, 2 billion VND for account verification to withdraw the money and 1.4 billion VND to join the fast withdrawal channel. However, she still could not withdraw the money.

Within just 5 days, Ms. T. transferred 5.4 billion VND to the subjects. Realizing that she had been scammed, Ms. T. went to the police station to report.

Hanoi police warn that with the development of information technology, the number of users of online dating applications has grown rapidly in recent years. Taking advantage of this trend, many people commit fraud and property appropriation against users of online dating applications.

Accordingly, scammers will find their "prey" through popular online dating applications such as Tinder, EzMatch, Litmatch, Hullo... After making friends and increasing their trust level, scammers will switch to the topic of finance, encouraging victims to participate in attractive financial investments.

When the “prey” agrees to spend money on investments, the interest is returned as promised to increase trust. However, when the investment amount is large, they will take all of that money and use the excuse of “upgrading the VIP package”, “refunding the investment support fund”, “removing the safety mode”… to continue to appropriate the victim’s money until the “prey” discovers that they have been scammed.

To prevent fraud, Hanoi City Police recommends that people be vigilant when participating in online dating applications and friend requests from strangers on social networks. People should not participate in financial investment applications or international trading floors that are advertised with high interest rates and potential risks of fraud to protect themselves and avoid falling into financial traps.

When encountering cases with signs of fraud, people need to contact the police for timely resolution.

Nguyen Hue

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