Faced with a surge in cybercrime and online financial fraud, the banking industry is working with relevant agencies to clean up the system, including deleting tens of millions of bank accounts that do not have their identities verified, also known as “dormant” accounts.
Over 86 million unverified accounts
According to the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV), of the more than 200 million personal bank accounts opened nationwide, only 113 million accounts have been verified by biometrics. For corporate accounts, 711,000 accounts (accounting for 55% of the total number of bank accounts of organizations) have been verified by biometric information of the legal representative. From July 1, corporate accounts must also be authenticated by biometrics to be able to make transactions.
Using AI to track customer transactions at Nam A Bank. Photo: Minh Huy
Thus, there are still more than 86 million personal accounts whose identities have not been accurately determined, many of which are "hibernating" due to no transactions for a long time, or even "ghost accounts", fake identities created to commit financial fraud and scams.
To clean up the account system, according to the State Bank of Vietnam's plan, from September 1, 2025, commercial banks will apply the deletion of "dormant" accounts. In fact, some commercial banks such as BIDV, Vietcombank, Agribank , Techcombank, VPBank... have automatically locked cards or closed accounts if the account has no transactions for 1-3 years when the balance is 0. Many commercial banks are also promoting the application of technology to protect customers. Recently, MSB has deployed the "fraudulent account warning" feature right on the MSB mBank application. The system will automatically display a warning if users transfer money to accounts with signs of fraud confirmed by authorities.
With a high level of risk, MSB will block the transaction completely; if there is only suspicion, the customer will be warned and make their own decision. Meanwhile, MB Bank has used artificial intelligence (AI) to monitor transactions in real time. The system can detect abnormalities in time, space, value and device to warn customers. Similarly, after only 2 months of implementing the feature to warn customers before transferring money to accounts on the suspect list, BIDV has helped more than 40,000 customers stop transferring money, preventing losses of over 160 billion VND...
According to Mr. Pham Anh Tuan, Director of the Payment Department (SBV), deleting “dormant” accounts not only helps clean up data, but also builds trust for customers, especially in the context of increasingly sophisticated high-tech crimes. “The SBV is building a centralized database of accounts, cards, e-wallets... with signs of fraud, with the coordination of credit institutions. This database currently has more than 350,000 accounts suspected of fraud, playing an important role in warning and preventing suspicious transactions,” Mr. Tuan informed.
The "war" continues
In fact, although the banking industry has been implementing many measures to clean up the system, sophisticated forms of fraud continue to mutate. Recently, Thai Binh Provincial Police busted a 1,000 billion VND gambling ring and discovered that the subjects used AI to create fake biometric videos to deceive the bank. This is the first time this method has been recorded in Vietnam.
From September 1, 2025, accounts without biometric authentication and no transactions will be deleted.
In addition, information from the police agency said that one of the emerging forms of fraud that is causing concern is the crime of keeping people captive to rent out their faces for biometric authentication. This form allows the subject behind the fraudulent transaction, while the “face renter” only appears when authentication is needed. This problem poses a big challenge to current authentication measures. However, criminal organizations are often based outside of Vietnam, making it difficult to detect and handle in a timely manner.
Currently, the Ministry of Public Security is proposing to criminally prosecute individuals who lease accounts, lend identities or assist in fraud. At the same time, the State Bank of Vietnam has also drafted a decree to replace Decree 88/2029 on administrative sanctions in the banking and monetary sector with administrative fines increased 4-5 times compared to the current level (up to 200 million VND for leasing or borrowing accounts).
According to Mr. Nguyen Duc Lenh, Deputy Director of the State Bank of Vietnam Region 2, the increase in sanctions is expected to be enough of a deterrent to limit the situation of assisting criminals. Meanwhile, Deputy Governor of the State Bank of Vietnam Pham Tien Dung emphasized that the coordination between the State Bank of Vietnam, the Ministry of Public Security and relevant agencies has contributed to creating an increasingly complete digital payment ecosystem. However, another issue that needs attention is to educate people about the tricks of criminals so that they have the knowledge to safely transact on digital channels and not fall into the traps of technology criminals.
According to HANH NHUNG (SGGPO)
Source: https://baogialai.com.vn/xoa-so-tai-khoan-ngu-dong-post328669.html
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