After the two-tiered government model officially came into operation on July 1, 2025, the country now has 34 provinces and cities and 3,321 commune-level administrative units. Taking advantage of information about the restructuring and mergers, fraudsters have impersonated state management agencies such as: local police, civil registration officers of the newly established communes and wards, calling people to instruct them to access links or install fake VNeID applications containing malware in order to gain control of their phones and steal their assets.
The perpetrators' modus operandi involves making phone calls using regular mobile numbers or virtual call centers, impersonating agencies or organizations, and presenting themselves as local government officials, police officers, etc., to announce changes in the administrative structure and request citizens to update their information. These individuals have collected citizens' personal information beforehand and present it to gain their trust before requesting them to follow their instructions.
In this scheme, the perpetrators typically instruct people to access links they provide or install the fake VNeID application, a public service app containing malware. After people access or install the application, they gain control of the device, further tricking people into following instructions to obtain the OTP code for their bank account or tricking them into looking at their phone to obtain biometric data, thereby stealing money from their bank accounts.
Besides exploiting VNeID updates, scammers are also targeting parents whose children are about to enter primary, secondary, and high school (grades 1, 6, 10, and university) to commit fraud. A common tactic involves requesting parents to update or adjust student information via a link, with the intention of stealing money from their accounts. Therefore, many schools and local police forces have recently issued warnings about this new type of scam related to updating and supplementing student information for primary and secondary school enrollment. Currently, taking advantage of the enrollment period, online scammers impersonate local police officers and request parents to update their children's electronic identity (level 2) for application purposes. However, this is actually a new scam; if people follow the scammers' instructions, click on the link, and provide their account information and identification photo, their money will be stolen.
Furthermore, recently, taking advantage of the Party and State's policy of waiving tuition fees for students at all levels, many scammers have impersonated employees of the Department of Education and Training and schools, calling and texting people to request documents for tuition fee refunds, thereby defrauding them of money.
Given this situation, the police advise people to absolutely not comply with requests made over the phone by individuals claiming to be commune or ward officials, or local police officers. If you need to update information, go directly to the police station in your commune or ward. If you have accessed a link or installed an application containing malware, immediately contact your bank to block your account and turn off your phone to prevent the perpetrators from obtaining your bank's OTP code or biometric data. Simultaneously, report the fraud to the nearest police station if you have been scammed.
People need to be vigilant and not follow any instructions from unknown callers. When receiving suspicious information related to personal information updates, enrollment, tuition waivers, etc., they should contact their homeroom teacher or the nearest local police station directly to verify the information.
In this era of booming science and technology, high-tech scams are also flourishing. Therefore, people need to be extremely vigilant, verify and check information to avoid losing money unnecessarily, and also spread awareness among family, friends, and relatives about new scam methods and tactics.
Source: https://baoquangninh.vn/loi-dung-thong-tin-sap-nhap-xa-phuong-de-lua-dao-3367134.html
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