Deposit real money into fake stock exchange, lose real money

Recently, the Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Agency has received a number of cases related to fraud and property appropriation through soliciting investment in fake securities applications.

Fake financial and stock applications are being tricked into installing by criminals. Screenshot

A typical case, Ms. H. (residing in Hanoi ) was "tipped off" to invest 4 billion VND in a stock code with a guaranteed interest rate of up to 777% (equivalent to 7.77 billion VND).

However, after discovering signs of irregularities and being unable to withdraw money, Ms. H. had her account deleted by the subjects, removed from the chat group and all communication blocked.

Notably, all transactions were staged using simulation techniques via apps and websites created by the subjects. The victims' accounts continuously displayed "fake" profits to create trust and entice victims to continue depositing money.

Sophisticated methods and tricks

Criminals use fake accounts (using images of individuals with similar appearances) to join websites, groups (groups, fanpages) on social networking sites (mainly Facebook) about buying, selling, and renting real estate... then interact and pay attention to posts by individuals (mostly women, with good economic conditions) about renting and selling real estate and send friend requests to ask for more information.

Every day, the subjects will focus on discussing the content of the articles posted by the victim on the group. After a while, they will proactively talk about other topics such as family circumstances, work... and then, the subjects will start sharing about themselves and their lives to create sympathy and closeness with the victim: talking about their poor life in the past, their father (mother) died early or was seriously ill, trying to study successfully and currently working with a stable job abroad such as: doctor, IT engineer... with a good income, currently moving their family to settle abroad, getting married but their married life is not happy or because their wife died early so they are single.

An application that imitates the application released by Vietnam Development and Investment Bank Securities Joint Stock Company.

After winning the sympathy of the victim, they will start to entice people to invest in financial investment platforms, stocks, virtual currencies created by them in cyberspace. When the victim hesitates to join in investing in the system, the subject will use the excuse of giving information about an account and say that it is the account of the subject's relative (father, mother) and let the victim log in to the account and try playing. The victim sees that the orders all win from 5-50%, and the subject shares that they can analyze to win 100%. When they feel confident, the victim suggests joining in, the subject guides the victim to open an account on these systems.

Every day, the subject guides the victims to place orders with a high winning rate; when people want to withdraw money, the system allows easy withdrawal to e-wallet, virtual wallet or receive money to bank account. Then, they guide people to continue to deposit large amounts of money to increase profits (to create trust for the victims, the subject said that he would also deposit more into the accounts of his relatives, the virtual money in the accounts of the subject's relatives would also increase to the same level as the victim's deposit account).

When the amount of money deposited into the system is large enough (up to hundreds of millions or billions of dong), they will burn or lock the account because they detect signs of abnormality in the account or when the victim requests to withdraw money from the system, they cannot withdraw because they have to pay personal income tax, and at the same time, they ask the victim to deposit more money (30-40%) to be able to withdraw money. However, when the victim deposits more money, they will use different reasons to not let the victim withdraw money. When the victim no longer has the financial capacity, they will delete the contact, crash the website and take the victim's money.

Warning from authorities

- Be vigilant when communicating with strangers on social networks, absolutely do not share personal information, follow instructions without accurately determining the identity and background of that person.

- People need to be vigilant when investing in stocks, multi-level marketing, virtual currency... on online trading floors with unclear information or information that shows signs of being fake. At the same time, it is necessary to carefully research information about the trading floor before investing, especially investment floors that post virtual, unreal, or fake addresses of legitimate investment floors. In particular, only invest in legitimate trading floors that have been licensed to operate by state management agencies. Before investing, you should go directly to the offices of the trading floors for advice, support and information verification.

- When suspecting that they are being scammed online, people should search for information about online scams or seek advice from friends and relatives. Immediately report the incident to the nearest police station to receive timely advice and support; at the same time, contact the bank in charge to report the incident and request support.