Many people receive scam calls

Mr. Pham Van Uoc (42 years old, in Hoai Duc, Hanoi) said: “On January 6, I received a call from a strange phone number, they clearly stated my house number, name and asked me to pay the electricity bill, if I did not do so, the electricity would be cut off.

When I asked how to avoid power outages, they gave me an app and instructions on how to top up. Seeing that the app looked fake, I told them I had already topped up.

About an hour later, they called back and told me that the recharge had not been successful and threatened to cut off the electricity. At that time, I showed that I was not afraid of the power being cut off, but the subject immediately cursed and hung up. A day later, my wife received a similar phone call.

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People need to be vigilant against scam calls. Illustrative photo

Mr. Nguyen Van Ha (34 years old, in Dong Da, Hanoi) also received a call "urging to pay the electricity bill". He shared: "They called to pay continuously via the app but luckily I didn't believe it and followed. I directly met the electricity bill collector to ask and found out it was a scam".

Meanwhile, Ms. Nguyen Thanh Huong (in Nam Tu Liem, Hanoi) recounted: “At 5:28 p.m. on January 8, I received a call from the number 03351075XX. After confirming my name, the subject said that the system was reporting an error in the electricity bill payment, so my family still owed money. The subject also emphasized, 'You need to pay immediately to avoid having your electricity cut off'.

Realizing that there were signs of fraud, I still calmly asked: 'What electricity bill?'. Immediately, the subject seemed confused and asked me if I had paid this month's electricity bill. I replied that I was not the one paying the electricity bill, then the subject continued to ask for the phone number of the person paying the electricity bill to contact. At this point, I had to hang up and block the number."

Exposing the scam

Recently, fraudulent calls about electricity bills have become common and not everyone is knowledgeable enough to avoid falling into the trap like the people above.

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Hanoi Electricity Corporation recommends customers to be vigilant against impersonation calls.

The scammers' trick is to impersonate electricity employees and call customers, informing them that there is a problem with the electricity bill such as: overdue, large debt, or technical error in the system.

Fraudsters use caller ID spoofing technology to make their phone number appear as the official phone number of the power company, to increase the credibility of the call and make it easier for victims to trust.

Scammers also send messages via SMS or Zalo with fake content from the electricity company, asking people to pay their electricity bills, and providing information such as bank account numbers or fake links for people to access and make payments.

The text message or call usually says something like: "Your electricity bill this month has not been paid yet. Please pay via the bank account below to avoid power cut...".

After sending a text message or making a call, the scammer may send a link to a fake payment website (or a fake utility company app) for the customer to access.

To increase credibility, the scammer also investigated the customer's name, address, electricity bill... stolen from different sources.

More sophisticatedly, they also send a sophisticatedly designed payment QR code with the logo of EVN Electricity Corporation, causing the victim to scan the code without any suspicion and pay the amount pre-entered by the subject.

Faced with the above situation, Hanoi Electricity Corporation (EVNHANOI) has confirmed that it will not collect money via Zalo and SMS messages, and warned people not to pay electricity bills via these channels.

At the same time, it is emphasized that when communicating with customers, electricity employees must comply with customer care procedures and absolutely not have a rude or impolite attitude when communicating.

The Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) recommends that people should pay attention to calls and messages from unknown subjects, and be especially careful when following instructions and transferring money to these subjects.

In case of becoming a victim of fraud, people need to immediately report to the police for timely support and resolution.