Fraud increases during Tet, banks recommend prevention

To avoid falling into the trap of scammers, credit organizations recommend that Ha Tinh residents be vigilant, absolutely do not provide personal information, and do not access strange links.

Near Tet, large bank transactions are an opportunity for scammers to operate.

On January 9, 2024, Ms. Hoang Thi L. (Luu Vinh Son commune, Thach Ha) was scammed out of 10 million VND. Before that, Ms. L. received a call claiming to be a lender. While in need of a loan, Ms. L. quickly followed the instructions and entered the link provided by the subject. The subject asked Ms. L. to transfer 10 million VND to an account with the advice "after the money transfer is successful, your account will receive a loan of 100 million VND". After that, the subject continued to "trick" Ms. L. into transferring another 10 million VND with the reason: the previous transfer of 10 million VND because she did not clearly state the content, so she had to transfer it again.

On January 11, 2024, Ms. L. went to Agribank Ha Tinh Branch to transfer 10 million VND as requested by the subject. During the transaction, the bank staff suspected that the customer was being scammed, so they coordinated with the police to explain and reassure her, and Ms. L. decided to stop the transaction.

Fraud increases during Tet, banks recommend prevention

Ms. Nguyen Thi V. (Thach Ha) received support from Agribank officers of Ha Tinh Province Branch and Bac Ha Ward Police (Ha Tinh City) to preserve 450 million VND.

Previously, on January 2, 2024, Ms. Nguyen Thi V. (Luu Vinh Son commune, Thach Ha) was also successfully stopped by officers of Agribank Ha Tinh province branch while completing procedures to transfer 450 million VND. Accordingly, Ms. V. received a call from a subject claiming to be a telecommunications officer, informing her that her phone number was the same as another person's phone number (that person was involved in a drug case) and that a police officer would call to work with her. After that, Ms. V. received a call from a subject claiming to be a police officer, informing her that she was involved in a drug case, sent with a wanted notice. The subject asked Ms. V. to transfer 450 million VND to serve the investigation; fortunately, she was supported by bank staff and the police force to protect her assets.

In 2023, Agribank Ha Tinh Branch successfully prevented dozens of fraud cases. From January 1, 2024 to now, the entire branch has successfully prevented nearly 10 fraud cases, helping customers to preserve a large amount of money. In addition to old tricks, new fraud "tricks" have appeared such as: subjects impersonating SMS text message numbers or information pages, social networks of the bank to send strange links or provide incorrect promotional information; impersonating bank employees to invite cash withdrawals from credit cards...

Fraud increases during Tet, banks recommend prevention

Agribank Ha Tinh Branch staff guides customers on safe digital banking usage measures.

Mr. Vo Huy - Deputy Director of Agribank Ha Tinh Branch recommends: "To conduct safe banking transactions in the digital age, customers need to be vigilant when receiving SMS messages, check the information received and be careful when accessing the link contained in the message. Customers should note that Agribank absolutely does not send any messages with links asking customers to provide or enter username/password. Agribank only has a single website address at the link: https://agribank.com.vn/ .

Customers absolutely do not provide confidential information such as: login name, OTP code, card number, CVV code, account password... via unverified links, messages, chats, calls in any case. Do not contact, provide personal information, ID card number, CCCD, household registration to strangers or third parties online, by phone, including people claiming to be police, investigation agencies, bank employees... to avoid having personal information stolen and used illegally by criminals.

Vietcombank Ha Tinh is providing digital banking services to over 100,000 customers. Besides the advantages, online transactions pose many risks of personal information leakage and loss of money in customers' accounts if safety and security principles are not ensured. There are no exact statistics, but many customers using the Vietcombank Digibank app have "unfairly lost" their assets when trusting scammers.

Fraud increases during Tet, banks recommend prevention

Vietcombank Ha Tinh is providing digital banking services to over 100,000 customers.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Ha - Head of Customer Service Department, Vietcombank Ha Tinh said: "Currently, there are 2 common types of fraud. The first is fraud to steal banking service information by faking SMS messages with Vietcombank brand; creating fake websites and fanpages; fraudsters are tax officers, police, bank employees asking to install the bank. The second is fraudsters who transfer money themselves by impersonating bank employees, hospitals, courts, police, post offices, telecommunications... asking customers to transfer money.

To ensure safety, customers do not disclose their login name, password, or OTP to anyone, in any form. Customers only log in through trusted devices, do not save login information on any device; change passwords every 3 months or immediately when suspecting information disclosure; confirm that the person requesting the request is...

Currently, in addition to the “big 4” Agribank, Vietcombank, Vietinbank, BIDV, the local joint stock commercial banks are also increasing communication to help customers identify fraud forms; focusing on equipping banking staff with skills, promoting customer communication to promptly detect and prevent fraud cases.

According to the leader of the State Bank of Vietnam Ha Tinh Branch, in order to contribute to preventing and limiting the risk of criminals taking advantage of opening and using payment accounts for fraudulent, deceptive, and illegal purposes, the State Bank of Vietnam has requested credit institutions to seriously implement solutions to ensure safety for opening payment accounts/bank cards electronically and opening payment accounts/bank cards at transaction counters.

In addition, credit institutions should proactively implement measures to prevent and combat fraud and scam risks such as: not sending customers (via email, text messages, etc.) content containing links to prevent and avoid the risk of criminals using fake links to steal information and take control of accounts.

Banks also review to ensure that a customer can only use one device to log in to the Mobile Banking application; review solutions, tools, and software that can detect and warn of unusual transactions for the internet banking service system. In addition, deploy a variety of methods and measures to assess the level of understanding of customers in identifying risks of fraud and insecurity.

Thu Phuong

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