Losing money because of trusting fake officials: Beware of money-grabbing tricks over the phone

Recently, the Information Security Department warned about a sophisticated trick of impersonating police officers, luring people to install fake applications to integrate driving license points. Victims lost millions of dong after following the instructions.

On February 11, 2025, the Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) issued a serious warning about a new sophisticated form taking place in many localities, in which victims are impersonated as police officers and lured into installing public services to integrate driving license points. This trick is causing concern in the community because of its sophistication through phone calls, causing many people to lose millions of dong just because of a little carelessness and trust in fake "police officers".

One of the recent victims of this trick is Ms. LTL, a woman living in Thuong Xuan district, Thanh Hoa province. In early January 2025, Ms. L received a call from a woman claiming to be a police officer, informing her about the application of a new regulation of the Road Traffic Law, according to which each citizen will be given 12 traffic points and these points will be integrated into public services when installing the application. Although Ms. L was suspicious, the scammer reassured her that they would ask her to provide personal information, but this time it was just instructions on how to install public services.

After the first call, another phone number continued to call Ms. L and asked her to install the public service application. The caller confirmed that to comply with the regulations, she needed to provide personal information and bank card, which she did. After sending the images of documents and bank card, Ms. L's account was immediately deducted 7,910,000 VND.

The trick of the bad guys is to gain people's trust through fake calls from police officers. The subjects ask people to install public services and contact via social applications such as Zalo to continue to guide. It is the trust in this form that made Ms. L not suspicious at all and became the target of this unfortunate incident.

According to the Information Security Department, the method of impersonating police officers is no longer new, but currently these tricks are becoming more sophisticated and difficult to identify. The subjects often call the target directly, pretending to be a police officer and asking them to update information about the population, even asking them to come to the nearest police headquarters. In particular, the bad guys choose office hours to make it impossible for the target to refuse or arrange a time.

In the Thanh Hoa case, the bad guys lured Ms. L to install public services through a fake application. Although Ms. L was alert and confirmed that she had installed the public service, the subjects still convinced her to provide personal information and a photo of her bank card. As a result, she lost nearly 8 million VND in her bank account.

One of the signs of a scam is a request to transfer money or provide banking information via phone, Zalo or other social applications. People should pay special attention when receiving calls asking for personal information, banking information or downloading strange applications. The fact that the subjects request to send information via these forms is a clear sign of a fraudulent case.

In addition, people should note that integrating driving license points does not require implementation through official services outside of state agencies. The points will be automatically integrated into public services when people install level 2 public services on the National Public Service Portal.

With increasingly sophisticated tricks, people need to be vigilant and should not provide personal information or conduct financial transactions via phone, social networks or applications of unknown origin. In any situation, if there is any doubt about calls from government agencies, people should go directly to the competent authorities or contact through official channels for verification.

This is also an opportunity for authorities to enhance their propaganda and education work on sophisticated tricks, as well as how to identify and prevent them. When detecting signs, people need to immediately report to the police to protect their rights and prevent damage.

The fake "bronze girl" watches the billion-dollar fortune telling, the "terrible" trick of the "magician" surnamed Trinh? Khang Trần21:30:55 08/02/2025On February 7, 2025, the Criminal Police Division of Thanh Hoa Provincial Police arrested Trinh Phuong Mai (born 1988, residing in An Hung Ward, Thanh Hoa City), a subject who appropriated property by divination, exile, and expiration via social networks.