Police warn of fraudsters taking advantage of mergers to use old tricks

Taking advantage of the arrangement of administrative units across the country, scammers have come up with tricks that make many people lose their vigilance.

Ho Chi Minh City Police issued a warning about the scam of installing fake VNeID applications. Accordingly, from July 1, 2025, the Resolution on the arrangement of provincial administrative units officially takes effect. Accordingly, the country has 34 provincial administrative units, including 28 provinces and 6 cities.

Taking advantage of the above situation, scammers impersonated state management agencies such as local police, civil status officers of new communes/wards, calling to instruct people to access links or install fake VNeID applications containing malware to take control of phones, thereby appropriating people's assets.

People need to be vigilant against the old trick of asking to install fake VNeID software.

The methods and tricks of the subjects are: Calling using regular mobile phone numbers or fake virtual switchboards, impersonating agencies and organizations, introducing themselves as officials of the Commune/Ward Committee, local police, etc., to announce changes in the administrative apparatus, asking people to update new information. The subjects have collected people's personal information in advance and provided it to create trust before asking them to follow their instructions.

The subjects asked people to access the link provided by them or install the VNeID application, a fake public service containing malware. After people accessed or installed the application, they took control of the device, continued to lure people to follow the instructions to find a way to get the OTP code of their bank account or lured people to look at the phone to get biometric data, thereby appropriating money in people's bank accounts.

The Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention recommends:

- People absolutely do not follow the requests over the phone of callers claiming to be commune/ward officials, local police... If you need to update information, you must go directly to the police station of the commune/ward where you live.

- Propaganda and mobilize family, friends and relatives to be vigilant against the above methods and tricks.

- In case people have accessed a link or installed an application containing malicious code, immediately contact the bank to lock the account and turn off the phone, not giving the subjects the opportunity to obtain the bank OTP code or biometric data.

- Report to the nearest police station when being scammed and having your property stolen online.

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/cong-an-ra-canh-bao-lua-dao-loi-dung-sap-nhap-gio-tro-cu-post1552163.html