A fake fanpage impersonating the UPU letter writing contest appeared to trick parents and students.

The UPU International Letter Writing Competition has been held annually by the Universal Postal Union since 1971 for students aged 9-15 around the world to contribute to developing children's writing skills and creativity, creating conditions to strengthen friendship between nations among the young generation and helping them understand more about the role of the postal industry in life and social development.

In Vietnam, after 36 years of students and children nationwide participating in international letter writing, this contest has become a prestigious brand, creating a useful playground for more than 1.5 million Vietnamese children and youth to participate each year.

There is a unifying theme chosen by the Universal Postal Union as“Over the past 150 years, the Universal Postal Union (UPU) has served more than eight generations of people around the world. Since then, the world has changed a lot. Write a letter to future generations to tell them about the world you hope they will inherit.”, the 2024 UPU letter writing competition in Vietnam has ended. The closing and award ceremony of this competition was hosted by the Ministry of Information and Communications on May 17 in Ninh Binh.

However, in recent days, on the social network Facebook, the Organizing Committee of the 2024 UPU Letter Writing Competition in Vietnam has recorded the appearance of many fake fanpages impersonating the competition. On these fake fanpages, the subjects have posted many images of the 53rd UPU International Letter Writing Competition - 2024 in Vietnam with false information to lure students and parents to register to participate in the fake competition created by them with the purpose of fraud, appropriation of information and property.

In a newly issued warning, Vietnam Post Corporation, one of the units directly participating in organizing the UPU international letter writing contest in Vietnam, said: The person who created Facebook pages impersonating the UPU Vietnam letter writing contest came up with their own topics and promised attractive prizes to entice parents and students to register to participate.“In fact, this is a trick to lure parents into paying money or hacking users' Facebook accounts.”, Vietnam Post's warning stated.

The UPU International Letter Writing Competition in Vietnam has only one fanpage at “facebook.com/cuocthivietthuupuvietnam”. The management and operation of activities on the official fanpage of the competition is coordinated by the Organizing Committee including the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Education and Training, the Central Committee of the Ho Chi Minh Communist Youth Union, the Young Pioneers and Children Newspaper, and Vietnam Post.

The contest organizers recommend that parents and students be vigilant to avoid being scammed, specifically by following the “3 no’s”: Do not follow requests on unofficial Fanpages or websites; do not provide personal information or bank accounts when requested; do not access strange links or make any payments without verifying the source.

In mid-August, on the national cyberspace portal, the Department of Information Security (Ministry of Information and Communications) warned that the "Toyota International Painting Contest - Dream Car" jointly organized by Toyota Vietnam and the Young Pioneer and Children's Newspapers, had been exploited by some individuals, creating fake Fanpages to scam and appropriate money from parents and students. Previously, these scammers had also repeatedly used fraudulent tricks to impersonate the organizers of programs and competitions for children to steal information and appropriate people's property.

Impersonation fraud has been identified by the Information Security Department as one of the "hot spots" of online fraud in Vietnam's cyberspace recently. Many fake websites and fan pages have been continuously created to impersonate agencies, organizations and businesses to defraud and appropriate assets from negligent and unwary users. According to statistics, to date, the national anti-online fraud database has collected more than 125,000 website addresses impersonating agencies and organizations for the purpose of fraud.

To prevent scams impersonating famous organizations and brands to organize fake contests and programs, the Information Security Department recommends that people need to be more vigilant.

When receiving information from Facebook pages with content introducing and inviting participation in online programs and contests, people need to verify the identity of the organizing unit; request these units to provide documents proving that they are legal organizations and are allowed to organize the events they introduce.

In addition, people should not follow the instructions of strangers, especially requests to transfer money; do not provide personal information, bank account information in any form. In case of being scammed, people need to immediately report to the nearest police station for support and guidance on how to resolve the issue.

Organizations and businesses that are impersonated to commit fraud need to proactively conduct cyberspace scans to promptly detect fake websites and fanpages of their units, promptly warn users to promptly prevent fraudulent behavior, ensure information security for users and also protect the reputation and brand of the organization.