Beware of electricity application installation scams

Warnings about the trick of impersonating electricity industry employees to commit fraud are not new. However, recently, scammers have "upgraded the script" and acted more professionally, closely following the actual information just issued by the electricity industry.

Mr. Hoang Quoc Huy (Hai Ba Trung district) shared his experience related to this scam: "The information they called was very accurate, from full name, address, house number, phone number... They also threatened to cut off my family's electricity, when I said it was a scam, they spoke very uncivilized."

Warning from Central Power about impersonation scams.

At EVN Hanoi Customer Care Center, the staff on duty received many phone calls from people.

Ms. Chu Thi Thanh Huong - Customer Care Center, Hanoi Electricity Corporation said: "When receiving phone calls informing customers that they have not paid their electricity bills to scam them, we will check the bill to confirm that the customers have paid and that there has been no power outage. We also warn customers not to follow the instructions of the scammers."

Accordingly, the subjects continuously called customers, claiming to be employees of the Electricity Company, requesting to digitize electricity records to collect monthly electricity bills. After that, they would instruct them to log into their bank accounts to synchronize their accounts.

Due to subjectivity, many people followed the subject's instructions. After performing the operation, the money in the bank account immediately disappeared.

Phone number impersonating electricity staff calling customers to scam.

Cyber security expert Ngo Minh Hieu said: "When you install this app on your phone, a blue screen will appear, notifying that your phone has been hacked, please do not do anything, the authorities are checking, but in fact this is just a trick for the subject to steal all personal data on the phone."

According to experts, phone impersonation fraud is one of the most common methods of approaching victims. The subjects often claim to be government agencies and then use threatening methods, creating psychological pressure such as controlling, threatening, and creating time pressure on the victim, making the victim confused and immediately comply with the request.

Therefore, if there are any questions about electricity or related services, people can directly contact the Customer Care Center or visit the official website of the Electricity Company of the provinces and cities.

Mr. Ta Minh Tri - Director of Customer Care Center, Hanoi Electricity Corporation said: "EVN Hanoi affirms that it will not use personal phones or personal accounts to notify or collect electricity bills, but will use an identified phone number when calling customers".

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Thi Thanh Thuy - Deputy Head of the Law Faculty, People's Security Academy said: "Pretending to be officials of state agencies is a very familiar trick. People should note that no state agency works over the phone. All must have documents and papers and be done at the headquarters.

Therefore, when receiving a call impersonating a government agency, we need to be extremely alert and absolutely do not follow the instructions. The most important thing is that each citizen needs to raise their vigilance and be cautious in all situations.

When receiving phone calls suspected to be fake, people need to stay calm in the face of information, even information that is pressuring and threatening.

We should not rush to provide personal information via phone or email, do not follow instructions to install fake applications and links, and should immediately notify the local police agency for support and advice.