VNPT (Vietnam Posts and Telecommunications Group) president To Dung Thai said at a workshop on cybercrimes on May 13 that mobile network operators play an important role in the fight against scammers.

“The risks are increasing alongside with the digital transformation process. While criminals are in the dark and we are in the light, the prevention and fight against scams in cyberspace are getting more complicated,” he said.

As telecommunications and digital service providers, telecom carriers need to observe the laws, and develop and use tools and solutions to prevent and fight scams. They also have to provide anti-scam services.

However, the most important action is eliminating trunk simcards, a serious problem for many years.

The watchdog agency has repeatedly asked telecom carriers to remove accounts that access telecom services anonymously such as trunk simcards, fake phone numbers and network addresses in violation. 

VNPT, Viettel, MobiFone, Gtel and Vietnamobile, as wel as MVNO (mobile virtual network operator), all have to share the responsibility with the watchdog agency to eliminate trunk simcards.

“The Ministry of Communications and Infomation has released directions on the problem. The requests are so serious that the leaders of service providers have been warned against trunk simcards,” Thai said.

He believes that network operators have to develop solutions to control scams. One solution is developing brandname tools on telecom infrastructure, such as SMS brandname, and Voice brandname. When calls and messages come, mobile phone users can identify the callers and message senders. 

Network operators also need to develop solutions that help identify users when using digital services. It is estimated that with popular digital services, there would be 80 million Vietnamese users, which means 800 million accounts need to be identified.

Thai, who is also deputy chair of the National Cyber Security Association, said network operators need to cooperate in identifying and authenticating users and services.

According to the association, there are three major groups of scams, including brand counterfeiting, account hijacking, and combined forms with 24 forms of fraud used in cyberspace.

Phishing attacks mostly target the elderly, children, students, youth, workers, laborers, and office workers. They trick users into installing, accessing and providing information to toxic addresses and malware.

Common methods of cyberfraud include voice calls, direct phishing, OTT/Email/SMS Phishing, and phishing via mobile apps.

Trong Dat