Sophisticated online scams make tech-savvy people victims too

(Dan Tri) - Recently, a series of online scams continue to take place with many sophisticated tricks. Notably, many victims are Gen Z - a generation that is said to have grown up with technology.

Gen Z is not completely immune to scams.

According to the Hanoi City Police Portal, on June 12, a girl named T. (born in 2004; residing in Ha Dong, Hanoi) received a call from a person claiming to be a police officer informing her that she was involved in a money laundering case being investigated by Hai Phong City Police.

The subject identified himself as a police officer and asked her to keep the matter a secret and not tell anyone or she would be sentenced to 10 years in prison. At the same time, she was asked to transfer money to prove that she was not involved in the case.

Faced with these requests, T. began to panic and immediately transferred 1.6 billion VND to the account provided by the subject to “prove his innocence”. Immediately after that, T. discovered that he had been scammed and went to the police station to report the incident.

Many Gen Z young people still fall into the "vortex" of scams (Illustration: CV).

Similar to T.'s case, previously on June 10, another case, L. (born in 2006; residing in Hoan Kiem, Hanoi) also fell into the trap of a subject pretending to be a police officer and as a result lost nearly 1 billion VND.

In fact, Gen Z is a generation that grew up with smartphones, social networks, and the Internet, so they are certainly no strangers to scam warnings. But that does not mean they are completely “fraud-resistant”.

The trick of impersonating police officers to defraud and appropriate property is an old trick that has been warned and reported many times by authorities and the press. However, due to subjective mentality and lack of vigilance, many victims, including young people, continue to fall into these traps.

Scammers often use psychological attacks to make victims panic, lose their composure and easily fall into their traps (Illustration: CV).

The reason also comes from the fact that scams not only target awareness but also attack psychological weaknesses and confusion in crisis handling when placed in an unexpected situation.

All kinds of roles with constantly changing scripts

Not only impersonating police officers, scammers also build a diverse system of scenarios and characters such as family members, electricity and water staff, admissions officers, delivery staff, and even "mistresses".

Among them, bank employees are a "role" used by many bad guys.

On June 22, Hanoi City Police said they had received a complaint from Mr. M., the victim of a high-tech fraud involving impersonation of a bank employee.

Mr. M. (30 years old; residing in Dong Da, Hanoi), the victim of the scam, said that on June 6, he received a call from someone claiming to be a bank employee informing him that he had incurred an unusual charge on his credit card.

They insisted that he must temporarily block his card for 24 hours to cancel the above charge. Due to trust and lack of vigilance, Mr. M. was lured to a digital platform and logged into a link that looked like the interface of the bank website sent by the subject to cancel the card.

Immediately after logging into the system, his account was deducted 100 million VND and the explanation from the subject was that the amount would be refunded after 24 hours. In addition, they continued to offer him to increase the limit and buy an insurance package for 15 million VND.

At this time, Mr. M. transferred 15 million VND to the person claiming to be a bank employee. After that, the subject reported the wrong code and requested 2 more transactions to resolve the previously suspended amount.

Once again, Mr. M. continued to transfer 30 million VND. Finally, it was only when the subject continuously asked for more money that he realized he had been scammed and went to the police to report.

Message from a scammer impersonating a bank employee (Photo: Hanoi Police).

Mr. M’s story is just one example of a series of cases where victims have fallen into traps systematically set up by scammers. From the situation, the story to the “role” are all carefully chosen by them to build trust for their operations.

The special thing is that these character-impersonation scams are all old tricks but disguised in new situations and scenarios that are constantly updated and transformed to easily create trust and urgency.

More dangerously, they also take full advantage of technological advances, especially artificial intelligence, to impersonate other people's faces and voices, causing many people to be mistaken.

By using Veo 3 in combination with third-party software to match other people's faces and voices, many scammers have taken full advantage of these technologies to carry out online scams (Photo: Google DeepMind).

Using email “@appsheet.com”, unique QR code

Recently, many users have continuously encountered emails “@appsheet.com” warning that their Facebook is in violation and will be deleted within 24 hours.

In fact, this is yet another new form of online fraud. Notably, the subjects took advantage of a legitimate Google service to bypass the email protection system, making it difficult for users to detect.

Accordingly, cybercriminals exploited the Google AppSheet platform - a code-free application development tool - to spread a series of phishing emails.

Because they come from a legitimate “@appsheet.com” address, these emails easily bypass Microsoft’s domain authentication mechanisms and email security gateways. As a result, the phishing emails can appear directly in users’ inboxes without being marked as dangerous.

The email content is mainly fake notifications from Facebook, warning users that they have violated intellectual property rights and that their accounts will be deleted within 24 hours. It is accompanied by a “Submit an Appeal” button.

Google AppSheet is exploited by cybercriminals to spread a series of phishing emails with the aim of hacking Facebook (Photo: Screenshot).

As soon as the button is clicked, the user will be redirected to a website with a Facebook login interface, hosted on Vercel, a service specializing in hosting modern web applications. In fact, the website with the Facebook login interface is fake, but because it is hosted on a reputable platform, it has made many users trust it.

When the victim enters their username and two-factor authentication code into the website, all the information is sent directly to the scammer. Notably, the two-factor authentication code after being stolen is used by hackers to log into Facebook and take control of the account.

As a backup, they even took the session token - a code that allows users to maintain access even if they change their Facebook password.

After taking over these accounts, they will use them to send messages to borrow money from the victims' friends and relatives or exploit personal data for bad purposes. Many victims are also threatened and blackmailed by the scammers.

Once they take over a Facebook account, scammers will text the victim's friends to borrow money or demand ransom to get the account back (Illustration: CV).

In addition to using email, the subjects also take advantage of many other tools to carry out their purposes. Among them is the malicious QR code, when users scan it, they will be redirected to gambling advertising pages and even malware can be installed on the phone.

Not stopping there, many victims are also trapped by fake websites that imitate the interface of shopping and tour booking websites.

These sites often offer attractive prices, promotions or gifts for bulk purchases. Therefore, many people do not hesitate to transfer money quickly and provide personal information for fear of "missing out on the deal".

The "5 no's" rule in cyberspace

According to Binh Thuan Provincial Police, the situation of fraud on the internet is becoming more complicated with all kinds of sophisticated, daring tricks and new methods.

The remarkable advances in technology, especially artificial intelligence, have become bad weapons in the hands of scammers, typically with the increase in deepfakes or using AI to guess passwords (Illustration: Stock).

The police agency recommends that people should comply with and implement the "5 No" Rule to avoid becoming victims of scammers in cyberspace.

- Do not provide personal information, address, phone number, bank account number to strangers; always carefully review and check information before making money transfers.

- Do not make friends and talk to strangers, especially accounts with beautiful and eye-catching images.

- Do not access, log in to links, websites, applications or open attachments from unknown senders.

- Do not transfer money in advance, absolutely do not deposit or transfer money to strangers under any circumstances.

- Do not be greedy for assets, gifts of unknown origin that can be easily received, "unrealistic" profits without labor, or invitations for "easy work, high salary".

- In addition, people need to think carefully and stay alert to avoid being manipulated by scammers and falling into bad situations. In particular, when receiving any calls claiming to be from the police, it is important to note that when working, the police will send a summons, do not work with people over the phone, and do not ask people to transfer money or install any software.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/cong-nghe/nhung-bay-lua-tinh-vi-tren-mang-khien-dan-cong-nghe-cung-thanh-nan-nhan-20250624165642365.htm