Job-seekers at a job centre in Khanh Hoa povince. (Photo: khanhhoa.gov.vn) Thanh, a citizen in Hanoi, revealed that she was deceived last year by anonline flyer advertising a lucrative investment opportunity. The flyer said theinvestment would earn her big money without any risk.
She had to create an account on a suspicious website and transfer money to theaccount. A "financial expert" on the website would manage the accounton her behalf, claiming he would turn the money into a small fortune.
"Initially, the account did show a profit, so I thought it was money forold rope. I borrowed a lot from my friends to transfer more money to theaccount, hoping for more profits. But I was wrong," she said.
She revealed that she could not withdraw money from her accountdespite the recorded profits. She made a complaint to the "financialexpert" but to no avail. He had walked off with all the money.
Another trick is scammers posing as representatives from big e-commercenames, recruiting freelance assistants and asking the assistants to orderproducts from a certain online shop to boost the shop's publicity.
The scammers pledge to return the money and pay kickbacks to the assistantsonce the orders are completed. Many have been led astray by the "easymoney" and gotten scammed.
"As soon as the assistants fall prey to the tricks, scammers will ask themto push on with higher-value orders, normally tens of millions of dong each. Whenthe total value of orders amounts to hundreds of millions of dong, they disappear with all themoney," said an expert from the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team(VNCERT).
Job security deposits are another trick. Scammers send emails toonline candidates to announce recruitment and claim that thecandidates are cut out for the jobs offered.
Once they are deceived, the scammers ask them to pay deposits tosecure vacancies, saying that they will miss out on the opportunityotherwise.
"The jobs were so appealing that I paid them on the spot. It laterturned out to be a bad decision. They took my money but offered me no job. WhenI tried to contact them, they put my number on the blacklist and blockedmy email," said Le Hong Ngoc, a victim of a job security scam in Hanoi.
Nguyen Huu Toai, a lawyer from the Hanoi Bar Association, said that it was atough job to bring online scammers to court as, in most cases, they liveoverseas and deliberately hide their identity.
"The scammers are cunning. They live and set up their serversabroad to avoid detection. It's almost impossible to detect their identity andtake legal actions against them," he said.
He also underscored that there is no such thing as "low effort jobs thatpay well." These unrealistic offerings are just a trap scammers setfor greedy victims.
Accordingly, he urged internet users to be cautious to keep themselves awayfrom such offerings that feed on their own greed.
The expert from VNCERT recommended that internet users stay well-informed aboutnew types of online scams via media and the portal chongthurac.vn.
"Users need to double-check firms' information via officialchannels before accepting any appealing offerings from those firms," headded.
The Long Phan Law Firm recommended that scam victims recordeverything possible related to their case, including messages, invoices, andphone numbers. The more evidence victims present, the faster theauthorities can deal with the case and recover the lost money./.
VNA
