Perspectives

The unpredictable 'Bitter Melon Month'

THU HANG/Tin Tuc Newspaper January 25, 2025 10:36

If in the past, during the 'honey month', our people only needed to tell each other to close their doors and lock their vehicles carefully to feel secure, today the space of the 'honey month' has expanded without limits, becoming much more sophisticated and unpredictable.

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Although authorities have warned, many people still fall into the trap of scammers (illustrative photo)

The end of the year, before Tet, is the time when people look forward to ending the old year and welcoming good luck in the new year. However, this is also the peak time for the "matrix" of scams spreading across the internet and real life, with increasingly sophisticated and cunning tricks.

Taking advantage of the increased demand for shopping and finances at the end of the year, combined with the hasty mentality and lack of vigilance of the people, technology and cyber crimes have increased their activities. Many old tricks have flourished again during the Tet holiday, and there is no shortage of new, more sophisticated tricks and scenarios being set up to trap users.

Typically, at the end of every year, the need to exchange new money and small change for lucky money or to prepare for consumer activities during Tet is very large, becoming a lucrative opportunity for online money exchange services.

Taking advantage of people's psychology and needs, scammers have come up with many tricks on pages and groups on social networks. Just type in the keyword "exchange Tet lucky money" on social networks and hundreds of posts and groups will appear with invitations and commitments of "real money", "new money", "cheapest price on the market"...

In the Facebook group “Exchange new money, small change, and lucky money with low fees” with more than 30,000 members, dozens of accounts post every day. Phrases such as “original stamp money”, “new series money”, “brand new money” appear frequently. Many account holders are also looking for collaborators to post, accepting “wholesale” new money, with a fee of 2-3% for used money, 5-8% for new money.

“Money traders” on the internet also sell lucky money, unique money, rare money, and foreign currencies from many countries.

However, illegal money exchange services on social networking sites pose many risks to money exchangers. In fact, there have been many victims who have made new money exchange transactions but when they received the exchanged money, it was not as promised, or even received counterfeit money.

There have been many cases where people have transferred money but the social media account owner has blocked contact and disappeared, "breaking" the customer's deposit. Many people who have "fallen into the trap" of scams and had counterfeit money exchanged do not dare to report to the authorities for fear of being prosecuted for buying and selling counterfeit money.

The end of the year and the beginning of the New Year often increase people's financial needs, especially those who are in financial difficulty and have to worry about paying off debts. Taking advantage of this mentality, financial fraud "matrixes" are spread everywhere to trap victims who are struggling with debt.

One of the popular forms of fraud that has been "identified" recently is impersonating bank employees to fraudulently borrow money or repay debts. This trick has deceived many people, especially those who do not have much experience in finance.

The subjects often claim to be employees of a large bank, calling or texting customers with the excuse of "informing them about preferential loan packages" or "updating credit information". Then, they ask the borrower to provide personal information such as citizen identification number, bank account number, income level, loan purpose, etc.

Even if the customer has a loan at the bank, the subject will notify that "payment is due" or "loan needs to be extended". The customer is asked to transfer money to another account or provide personal financial information to "secure the transaction". After following the instructions, the subject will present reasons for making the victim wait, then block all communication and appropriate the entire amount.

Another trick that is not new but still fools people who are not tech-savvy or do not keep up with social developments is the trick of impersonating officials of state agencies to "encourage" people to install fake applications of VNeID, Public Services, General Department of Taxation, electronic health handbooks... to fraudulently take control of phones and then find ways to appropriate property; or impersonating police agencies, people's procuracies, people's courts to make fraudulent calls; impersonating teachers, medical staff to call to inform relatives, children are in emergency...

Not only that, in the days leading up to Tet, people go online to search for gifts, specialties, discounted goods, train and bus services, Tet travel... From there, fraudulent applications, websites, and social networking sites have also flourished, launching many attractive promotional programs in exchange for poor quality goods, selling cheap tours and then embezzling deposits; setting up fake train and bus ticket and airline ticket agency websites.

In many stores, QR codes are often printed and framed on the checkout counter or posted in the area around the cashier counter. Fraudsters take advantage of the loophole to overwrite the QR code of a fake account and steal the transferred money.

They also send messages or images of fake invoices that have successfully transferred money to make the store owner mistakenly believe that the transaction has been completed and deliver the goods to the scammer.

In addition, petty scams also "variate" in many forms, such as pretending to give free gifts, promotions, gratitude on Tet holiday, delivering online purchases, just to cheat 20,000 - 30,000 VND in shipping fees.

Fraudulent tricks are constantly rampant, besieging people because criminals have taken advantage of many advantages of cyberspace and technology that is changing every day. But they are still rampant because of the lack of vigilance, lack of knowledge, or gullibility of the victims.

Fraudulent crimes, especially through technology or cyberspace, will have difficulty surviving if people are cautious, vigilant, and regularly update warning information from the press and authorities, so that they can soberly consider and check.

The end of the year and the beginning of the new year, amidst worries and hustle and bustle, people need to equip themselves and warn their relatives, especially the elderly, those who are not technologically literate, and those who are not updated with social situations, about scams and tricks.

Authorities also need to strengthen monitoring measures and take strong measures to suppress this type of crime. At the same time, propaganda work needs to be spread to every village, hamlet, residential group, and even each "subscriber number", so that the community is always vigilant and careful, not only during the "honeymoon month", but always, anytime, anywhere, when the network flow never stops.

THU HANG/Tin Tuc Newspaper
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The unpredictable 'Bitter Melon Month'