Regarding new scams, the police said scammers use images from different sources, cutting and pasting them to create new images to trick people out of money. In these cases, scammers mostly target wealthy people and socialites.

Scammers search for information and images of victims, from various sources such as social networks or victims' own social media accounts, then splice the victim's face onto images extracted from clips with "sensitive" content taken in motels and hotels.

After that, they impersonate private detectives and call the victims, saying that the police have discovered their alleged illicit relationships with others. They send the victims the aforementioned manipulated "sensitive" images and clips.

Fearing that the ‘sensitive’ images will be sent to the companies where they work, or posted on social networks, victims redeem the images. Scammers then blackmail the victims by guiding them to buy cryptocurrencies and remit money to given e-wallet accounts. The money will be appropriated by scammers.

The HCM City Police have received a report from a victim who claimed a loss of VND2 billion, or 80,000 USDT (a kind of cryptocurrency).

The police have requested people to take actions to prevent and deal with swindling and appropriation of money.

People have been requested to keep a close watch over official information and heighten their vigilance over tricks to scam and blackmail people.

Secondly, they need to apply measures to protect information and personal data when operating in cyberspace. They should not share images on identity cards, health insurance cards, driving licenses and other documents containing personal information on social networks.

The police have advised people not to access strange links to unfamiliar webs which can be attached in emails or messages. People should only install online apps from official sources of phone operating systems, such as IOS’ Appstore and Android’s CH Play. 

They need to increase awareness of the need to protect their social network accounts, personal accounts, office addresses, residential addresses, and especially sensitive images and videos which may be exploited for scam.

Thirdly, it is necessary to authenticate information, i.e. check related information before conducting any transactions, or consulting with relatives and friends about requests from strangers or others.

People need to carefully check information before sharing or conducting interactions. They need to be cautious when receiving e-mails, calls and messages from unclear sources.

Fourthly, in case of fraud or suspicion of property fraud, people need to report and provide information to the nearest police agency for guidance and handling.

Dam De