Risk of being scammed out of billions when selling dropshipping

Dropshipping is a term used to describe a form of retail where sellers do not need to stock products. Instead, they only need to find orders, then transfer orders and customer information to manufacturers or suppliers. This model has become popular online recently as the demand for online shopping has grown.

On March 30, the Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) warned that although it brings benefits to intermediary sellers, many people have been scammed when participating in this model, including a victim in Hanoi who lost 12 billion VND.

After hearing an online seller say they made a profit of 80 million VND when selling two watches through the app, Ms. Hanh (name has been changed) saw the big profit so she decided to join and went to the website to download the app.

According to the site's regulations, when a customer places an order, she will send a payment order in USD on the application and convert it into Vietnamese currency to transfer to the requested account. When they receive the money, she will receive the principal and interest.

In the first order, she deposited 511.28 USD (12.6 million VND), then received both the principal and the interest of 61.35 USD (1.5 million VND). She continued to place 46 orders, some of which she also withdrew money.

"When the deposit amount to buy the application reached 12 billion VND, her contact was blocked and she could not withdraw money. Only then did she realize she had been scammed and reported it to the police," the Department's warning stated.

The application works on the websitesupply shop... Looking up on the Whois system, the website was newly created in mid-January, and is still active today.

In addition, another form related to dropshipping is deposit fraud or system building fraud. Bui Hieu in Vinh Phuc said that after joining a Facebook group in February, someone in the group introduced him to the "intermediary sales" model. Accordingly, they asked him to deposit 5-10 million VND and would be supported in building an online sales system, including sales pages on Facebook and TikTok. He was promised that he only needed to operate these pages, without having to invest capital or import goods, but would receive a commission of up to tens of percent for each order. "When I was worried about whether it was a scam, they immediately blocked contact," Hieu said.

"People need to carefully verify information when participating in the dropshipping model and before each money transfer transaction, they need to be cautious when facing the opportunity to receive large profits thanks to online business applications," the Department recommended.