Recruiting online collaborators - New scamming method

The most commonly used form of fraud is to entice victims to become sales associates. After receiving the consent of the victim, the scammers will ask the victim to spend a certain amount of money to buy goods on commerce platforms such as shopee, lazada...

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After purchasing, evaluating the product, the victim will be paid for the goods and paid an additional percentage of the commission.

Initially, the amount of goods may be small, only a few million, the fraudsters will quickly transfer the commission to the victim to gain trust. Then, when there are larger orders, the victim has received the goods, these objects will "boom", block phone numbers, zalo, facebook.

In particular, the scammers are very sophisticated, only using social networks for transactions, without accurate information for victims to contact when discovering this scam.

So, how will scammers be punished?

Administrative sanctions

According to point c, clause 1, Article 15 of Decree 144/2021/ND-CP, those who use deceitful tricks to appropriate other people's property shall be fined from 02-03 million dong.

Criminal liability

Those who have been administratively sanctioned for the act of appropriating property but still commit it or use deceitful tricks to appropriate other people's property from VND 2 million to under VND 50 million may be subject to non-custodial reform for up to 03 years or imprisonment from 06 months - 03 years for the crime of property appropriation in Article 174 of the Penal Code.

In addition, if the crime is organized, professional in nature or appropriates between 50 and under 200 million dong, dangerous recidivism, etc., the offenders shall be sentenced to between two and seven years of imprisonment; if they take advantage of epidemics or natural disasters or appropriate between 200 and under 500 million dong, they shall be sentenced to between 07 and 15 years of imprisonment.

In particular, offenders can be sentenced to between 12 and 20 years in prison or life in prison if they appropriate property of VND 500 million or more or take advantage of war or a state of emergency. 

What should victims do with this scam?

When detecting that they have encountered a scam or see signs of fraud, people should immediately report it to the police for guidance and settlement.

Report via hotline

In Ho Chi Minh Cit:

Currently, Ho Chi Minh City city police has announced a hotline to receive reports of online fraud at the numbers: 0283.8413744 or 0693187680.

In Hanoi: Hotline 113 and Facebook page of Hanoi City Police at: https://www.facebook.com/ConganThuDo

- Hotline for Cybersecurity and high-tech crime prevention and control: 069,219.4053;

- Vietnam information security warning page at https://canhbao.ncsc.gov.vn./

Report to the police

- Competent police agency: Commune-level police station where the victim resides (based on Clause 1, Article 7 of Circular 28/2020/TT-BCA and Clause 1, Article 1 of the Criminal Procedure Code as amended in 2016. 2021).

- Dossier preparation: Denunciation form (need full information on the date of the denunciation, full name, address of the denouncer, denunciation content...); documents and evidence to prove that the victim was scammed online...