Please do not follow

Ms. Minh was working when she received a call from an unknown number. She listened to the phone for a while then turned to remind everyone in the room:

- If you see a strange number calling claiming to be the police and informing you that you have not installed a level 2 electronic identification account and asking to be friends on Zalo to guide you on how to install it, don't listen.

Ngoc turned around and asked:

- Why didn't you listen when the police called? What if there's a problem later?

- A strange number just called me, claiming to be Mr. Dat, a provincial police officer, saying that I have not installed a level 2 electronic identification account. They asked me to bring my identification papers to the provincial police station this morning to do it immediately. I said I was busy with work and could not go, so they read me another phone number, told me to make friends with this Zalo number of Mr. Hoang Xuan Bac, a police officer of department 2, and to declare so that this person can guide me to install it online.

- Then why don't you just follow them and finish it?

- They are scammers. If you believe them, you might be tricked into installing malware, having your personal information stolen, and then having your money withdrawn from your account, or in many other forms of fraud. So it's best not to follow them.

- How do you know they are cheating?

- Because I have already set up a level 2 identification account at the commune. I also often follow the news on the newspaper so I know that this form of fraud has appeared for a while. But I deliberately pretended to ask to see how they would cheat? This person also emphasized that it could only be done today and tomorrow. Then he required that I make friends on Zalo to be able to give instructions. I gave the reason that I was not used to making friends with strangers, this person threatened that if I did not make friends to work, he would put me on a black record, which would affect my social insurance.

- Why are there so many scams nowadays? I just found out after hearing you say that. If someone called my number and told me that, I would have believed it and done it. I was already worried when I heard about the police, and if they said that not doing it would affect my insurance, who wouldn't be worried and want to be supported to install it online right away, to avoid having to go all the way to the provincial police station?

- Because many people think like that, they are easily trapped by scammers. Nowadays, there are many sophisticated scams, so everyone needs to be more vigilant. If there is a problem that needs to be solved, the commune will make an announcement on the loudspeaker, or an officer will come to your house to inform you, not calling like this.