Deputy Head Trieu Manh Tung first informed about the status of criminals exploiting high technologies for their illegal acts. The situation is rather complicated, with various sly and dangerous tricks being applied on a large and transnational scale such as:

_using new forms for cyber gambling (betting on virtual sports and e-sports tournaments, financial betting on binary options through Forex broking platforms);

_marketing easy jobs with high wages;

_hiring online sales collaborators;

_using fake documents to declare a SIM card loss and then using the newly provided SIM card along with information on bank accounts to appropriate money;

_creating illegal foreign exchange trading floors or multi-level marketing platforms;

_using software and malware to hack the administration right of Fanpages, Facebook groups with a large number of members.

More seriously, there has been a significant rise in the cooperation between national and international criminals to trick people, such as the case of luring laborers into going to Cambodia to work.

Other newly emerged tricks include informal credits and debt collection activities where criminals establish a legal consultation company to actually sign contracts for debt collection acts, sales of fake documents and qualifications in cyberspace.

Answering the inquiry about repeated information leaks lately, the Deputy Head said that there are still weaknesses in management tasks of confidential information.

The regulations on personal information protection are spread in various legal documents, plus sanctions for law violations related to this matter are too light. These have created opportunities for the illegal exploitation of sensitive information now.

In addition, many organizations and businesses own confidential information of their clients but have exercised loose measures to protect it, leading to many cases of employees unlawfully selling those valuable information pieces for personal profits.

Finally, there are still individuals who are too careless to protect their own sensitive information. They willingly share their information in exchange for certain free features of apps and services on the Internet, not to mention the purposedly use of cracked software that is full of security vulnerabilities.

Deputy Head Tung then explained basic signs of scamming via phone calls and in cyberspace:

_luring people to become collaborators to receive commissions;

_instructing people to access certain websites and enter their personal information;

_sending fake messages to ask for password change or upgrade SIM card to enjoy 4G/5G functions

_informing people about certain law violations, gift receiving, award winning, or medical emergencies of their relatives, followed by a request for money deposit;

_sending messages on social networks to ask for loans;

_asking people to fill in forms of voting for an online contest;

_calling for charity fund raising or participation in virtual currency investments.

He also discussed the cooperation between his organization and local authorities, state agencies, especially the Ministry of Information and Communications to fight against cyberspace criminals.

They have provided advice for the Government and the National Assembly to perfect the legal system and improve the performance of state management in the field of cyberspace security and order.

There has been collaboration between the Department of Cyber Security and Hi-tech Crime Prevention, the State Bank of Vietnam, and the Information and Communications Ministry to control spamming SIM cards, to administrate telecoms and Internet service providers, commercial banks in giving personal information for crime investigations and criminal handling. The operations of businesses offering cross-border services are more strictly monitored.

Finally, Deputy Head Tung warned citizens and organizations that they should raise their awareness about possible tricks of cyberspace criminals.

_Any calls from strange numbers should be cautious.

_Sensitive information (phone numbers, citizen ID card number, home address, bank accounts, and especially OPT codes) must not be given to strangers.

_When receiving a call asking for loans, mobile phone card, money deposit, citizens must be extremely careful and double-check information via various methods.

_Passwords should be regularly changed, along with an increase in privacy/security measures for electronic devices.

_Personal information should not be published too much on social networks.

_A bank account used for online trading should only have a minimum balance to minimize risks of money appropriation.

_In the case of suspicion of being scammed, people should contact the nearest police station for proper support.

Source: SGGP