More and more bank fraud cases have been reported recently. The most common trick used is enticing users to click on the links scammers provide, with no clear origin, or persuading users to download apps on their mobile phones.

The apps contain malware which can read personal data and read messages with information about OTP and can transfer money from users’ bank accounts to another account.

Banking experts said with this trick, scammers can steal personal data in a sophisticated way that leaves victims unable to react.

According to Military Bank (MB), a client named A, an office worker in Hanoi, was among the latest victims. When having lunch with co-workers, she received a call from a man who introduced himself as a shipper. The shipper informed that he had a parcel to deliver and A had to pay the shipping fee of VND20,000.

The shipper also sent a QR Code to A so that she could scan the bank account code and remit money. Three minutes after A transferred money, the shipper called her again and said he mistakenly sent the wrong QR Code.

“The QR Code I sent was the one to confirm the opening of a shipping service package which is valid for one year, worth VND24 million. As the package has been activated, VND2 million will be automatically deducted from your account every month,” he said.

The shipper begged for her support and asked her to help by canceling the deal, because he was not in the right position to do this. He also warned that if A did not cancel the deal within 30 minutes, the shipper will have to pay his own money to the company.

“I didn’t know that when I was making the operations as instructed, I accidentally verified a transaction to transfer VND23 million in my account to another account,” A said.

According to the Authority of Information Security (AIS), there were 16,000 complaints in 2023 about online scams, and 91 percent of the cases were related to impersonation and phishing in the banking and finance sector.

Tricks are getting more and more sophisticated, not only stealing personal and financial data through other fake platforms, but also installing malware on customers' phones to hijack devices or copy data at the same time.

Military Bank has announced a new feature on MBBank App which automatically detects and gives alert to customers when there are signs their mobile devices are being penetrated and hijacked.

Tuan Nguyen