For several years, Nguyen Thi Hong in Buon Ma Thuot City in Dak Lak province never answered calls from unfamiliar subscribers.

“Previously, I sometimes received calls telling me to pay fines for traffic violations, though I was too old to drive a motorbike,” she said, implying that the callers were just scammers.

Nguyen Thi Thu Huong, 24, in HCM City, said she would ignore calls from unfamiliar subscribers because she saw it as an inconvenience.

“Some of them call to persuade me to buy houses and securities, while others said they are police informing that I was involved in a serious case. One time, I was informed that my subscription would be locked because of my violations and I needed to pay fines to keep it,” she said.

“There are 5-6 such calls a day. You can’t do anything but ignore them,” she said. “If you answer the calls and refuse the invitations to buy an apartment or book a tour, you may even be insulted."

Often bothered by strangers’ calls, and warned of scams and fake news, people have become hesitant to join and stay in the digital environment.

Thanh, a media executive, said he patiently applies all the methods suggested by telecom carriers to block spam calls, including reporting spam calls to mobile network operators. However, after he reported spam calls from one subscriber number, he received spam calls from other numbers the next day. 

Finally, he decided to install software of a third party which can recognize incoming spam calls. However, he is worried about the safety of the software as he doesn’t know who the real author of the software is, and the software can help only a little. 

“So, the best method is not answering calls from strangers,” he said.

While scams via phones just affect an individual, scams on social networks affect users on a larger scale, especially the behavior of illegally posing as bankers, agencies or businesses.

In recent days, a series of agencies including social insurance, the Ministry of Education and Training (MOET), taxation body and power companies have warned people of scams. Commercial banks have warned that scammers impersonate brands sending messages to clients to steal information about clients’ bank accounts.

In the first months of 2023, many mobile phone users repeatedly complained that they received calls from subjects introducing themselves as state agencies’ officers, who requested personal information to serve the standardization of subscribers’ information. The subjects threatened to block the subscribers if they did not press button No 2 and make declarations for data standardization.

After getting the information, they appropriated victims’ social network accounts, money, and bank accounts that link with e-wallets, according to the Vietnam Cybersecurity Emergency Response Team/Coordination Center (VNCERT/CC).

The warnings and reports about scams published on mass media have caused people to feel insecure about joining the digital environment, while the government of Vietnam is trying to speed up the development of the digital economy and society.

Vu Ngoc Son, CTO of NCS, a cybersecurity firm, said many scam cases will cause people to hesitate to install new apps, thus affecting authentic websites. In the long term, people may no longer install or access websites.

Nguyen Thanh Son, chair of the MVV Entrepreneur Academy Corporation, said one of the six pillars of digital transformation is digital security. This is the field which still has not caught adequate attention in Vietnam.

That is why the development of the digital economy may become a fertile land for digital criminals, and the counterfeiting of websites of banks, social insurance and education establishments is just the tip of the iceberg. 

In the time to come, more variations of digital crimes will turn up. So, the problem is not only that users will be hesitant to access official webs, but they will also be slow in joining the digital economy and digital society.

Le My