Da Nang: Woman hurriedly mortgaged her red book after receiving a call from a stranger, losing 2 billion

Threatened by a man claiming to be a police officer who was involved in an illegal business group, a woman in her 50s hastily pawned her land book for 1.7 billion VND. She then transferred the money to the scammer.

Da Nang City Police are investigating a case in which a woman was scammed out of VND2 billion and are warning people about calls from scammers impersonating law enforcement officers. According to a police representative, at noon on December 4, Ms. BTM (55 years old, residing in Thanh Khe District, Da Nang) received a text message informing her that her phone SIM card would be locked.

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Before she could find out the reason, Ms. M. received another call from a social media account via phone number 0813155xxx and the person on the other end of the line identified himself as "Nguyen Minh Hai, Head of Da Nang City Police Department" informing that Ms. M.'s phone number was related to illegal business.

This person then asked Ms. M. to mortgage the red book and then transfer money to the account of the "authorities" to prove that she did not violate the law. Too scared, the woman immediately went to the bank to pawn the red book for 1.7 billion VND and then transferred all of it to the SHB bank account, under the name "NGUYEN HONG HAI" provided by the person claiming to be a police officer.

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On December 7, "officer Hai" continued to call and asked to transfer another 300 million VND, so Ms. M. had to borrow and transfer the above amount to the subject. On December 13, realizing that she had been scammed, the woman went to the ward police station to report the incident.

Previously, the My An Ward Police, Ngu Hanh Son District, Da Nang promptly stopped a citizen from transferring money to a scammer in a similar manner. Specifically, at 4:00 p.m. on December 5, the My An Ward Police received a report from the Vietcombank Branch (address 153 Ngu Hanh Son Street) stating that a woman came to the branch to transfer money to a stranger but showed many unusual signs.

Afterwards, My An Ward Police urgently sent forces to the bank branch and identified Ms. Mai Thi Huyen (52 years old, residing in Group 13, Hoa Hai Ward, Ngu Hanh Son District) as being in the process of transferring money to a stranger with ZL named Nguyen Huu Trung.

Ms. Mai Thi Huyen said that this person contacted her, claiming to be an officer of the Office of the Investigation Police Agency of Da Nang City Police and said that she was involved in an organization that violated the law, and asked her to transfer 230 million VND for investigation, otherwise she would be arrested. Fearful, Ms. Huyen immediately went to the Vietcombank branch to transfer the above amount to the subject. Fortunately, the authorities stopped her in time.

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Impersonating the police to report violations and then requesting money transfers is a form of fraud that has appeared in recent years. The subjects take advantage of people's panic and fear when being notified by authorities related to illegal acts. They use fake phone calling applications in the name of authorities, proceeding step by step such as collecting personal information, threatening related to illegal acts, requesting money transfers to serve the investigation...

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The sign to recognize the above trick is that the victim suddenly receives a call from a strange phone number or a virtual switchboard (113, BOCONGAN...) informing about a violation of the law (traffic violation, related to a case under investigation...). Through this call, the subjects will collect the victim's personal information and threaten, causing psychological pressure to prevent the victim from having the opportunity to consult relatives or authorities.

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After collecting information, the group will connect people to another call introduced as the prosecutor's office, court... to continue to put psychological pressure, asking people to immediately transfer money to their account to serve the investigation or handle violations.

Da Nang City Police advise people to be vigilant about the above tricks, to avoid falling into the traps of bad guys. When detecting cases with signs of fraud as above, it is necessary to report to the police.

The woman lost 1 billion dong after a "mysterious" call Ngọc Sa10:47:49 18/07/2023Recently, the situation of pretending to be a police officer or a State agency in order to defraud and appropriate property through phone calls is becoming a painful problem. Although the method is not new, many people are trapped.