Do not fall into the trap of impersonating “e-identifiers”

To complete the registration for a mobile phone account, people need an additional step of activating the account. The electronic identification and authentication system will automatically compare and contrast the declared citizen information with the information in the National Population Database. For level 2, the system will compare and contrast more portraits or fingerprints of the registrant. If there is a match, the system will create a level 1 or level 2 mobile phone account and send an account activation request to the registrant via the registered phone number or email. Since mobile phone accounts have begun to be accepted in some types of online services, people – especially those wishing to use online services – can now apply for this type of mobile phone.

Mobile phone accounts are also identity documents, personal IDs, so they have become a new target of theft of technology criminals. On April 4, the Ministry of Public Security said that only a short time after the issuance of mobile phone accounts, new types of scams with the guise of verifying information appeared. Specifically, according to Hanoi City Police, taking advantage of the implementation of issuing and verifying mobile phone accounts, criminals call the victim, claim to be a police officer, correctly read the name, identification number, date of birth. (this data of the victim has been exposed online for many reasons), asking the victim to log in to a website impersonating the interface of a state agency to provide personal information, bank account information, code OTP sent to the phone number provided by them… Then, they used the above information to log in to the victim’s online banking applications, e-wallets, etc. to appropriate property.

The Department of Cybersecurity and Crime Prevention using high technology – Hanoi City Police said that when functional sectors deploy applications (apps), creating favorable conditions for people in handling administrative procedures, pushing Strongly digitized by electronic transactions, there are immediately “followers”, impersonating the competent authority to manage the app to exploit personal information. Many people have fallen into the trap because scammers read names, addresses and CCCD numbers correctly. In particular, there was a case where the exact name of a family member was mentioned, causing the victim to be cautious at first, but to believe. Personal information and OTP codes when provided to bad guys will be used to appropriate the amount of money in the victim’s account.

The Ministry of Public Security emphasized: “In the verification of mobile phones, the police agency only performs it directly at the headquarters and does not require citizens to provide information by phone.” To be granted a mobile phone account, people need to go directly to the police station and follow the correct process.

The police agency also warned people not to comply with requests from “strange” calls claiming to be state agencies or police forces; do not provide personal information, account numbers, OTP codes… to strangers to avoid scams of criminals.