Like-baiting and profiting from the pain of fellow countrymen is a crime.

The northern mountainous provinces are still struggling with severe floods, causing untold human and property losses. Local authorities are actively carrying out rescue and relief efforts to help minimize the damage caused by floods.

These days, the whole country is supporting the people of the northern mountainous provinces through charity and relief activities. However, in recent days, fake news and inhumane actions have continuously appeared on social networks, "taking advantage of the flood" to attract views and profit.

The photo of a baby crying because of the loss of his mother (left) and his family fleeing the flood in Ha Giang is a false image of the impact of storm No. 3.

The photo posted on social media with the caption: “Heartbreaking image of a family evacuated in Ngoc Linh commune, Vi Xuyen, Ha Giang…” easily received thousands of likes, shares and comments on social media.

A clip of a child in the highlands sobbing with the caption: " So sad and heartbreaking, the water swept away mother and child and they can't be found anywhere " has brought tears to many readers, thousands of condolences, and hundreds of kind hearts sent out wishing to help.

However, when that photo became famous and became a trend on social networks, immediately, the leader of the People's Committee of Vi Xuyen district, Ha Giang province had to speak up to correct that " The above image is just one of the contents of a Youtuber made during the flood season ". And Ms. Mai Thi Xoan - the homeroom teacher of the child in the clip teaching at Ma Pi Leng school (Meo Vac district, Ha Giang) also had to go online to confirm that the child was not crying because her mother was swept away by the flood, but she was crying because she followed her mother to the fields. She still has both parents. That video was filmed a year ago, not now.

Subjects create fake accounts of government agencies or reputable organizations to call for charity to support people in flood-affected areas.

It is worth mentioning that, taking advantage of the concern, sympathy and sharing of many people across the country with their compatriots in the northern provinces and cities, a number of fake Fanpages have been set up to call for charitable support. The subjects created fake accounts of state agencies or reputable organizations; even used images and information similar to official pages to call on kind-hearted people to donate and transfer money to personal accounts in order to appropriate. And in fact, many people have sent love and trust to the wrong place.

Not only that, the information is also spreading on the internet: " People who have lost power and do not have wifi can enter all of the following syntaxes to get internet: 3ST4G send to 191, 4G send to 191, ZP send to 191, 5GKM send to 191, ST15_4G send to 191, ST15N_4G send to 191. All are free from Viettel ".

Faced with the problem of widespread fake news, authorities recommend that people carefully check information before sharing and improve their ability to protect themselves. They should only follow information pages from the Government and reputable press agencies to update accurate news to limit the risks of online fraud or becoming victims of bad actors online.

At its peak, late on September 12, the Central Committee of the Vietnam Fatherland Front published 12,028 pages of statements of the amount of money the whole country donated to support people affected by natural disasters and floods. As of 5:00 p.m. on September 12, the amount of money transferred by organizations and individuals to the Central Relief Mobilization Committee's account was VND 527.8 billion. And the Central Relief Mobilization Committee also posted a specific list of organizations and individuals who donated through Vietcombank account number 0011001932418 from September 1 to September 10, 2024.

Immediately after the list was announced, most of the community supported the transparency of the authorities in supporting the flood victims. Many opinions expressed the hope that all of this support money will soon reach the people, to repair bridges, roads, schools, stations, to partly overcome the material and spiritual losses, especially for those who lost loved ones, had their houses collapsed, lost crops...

However, from these more than 12,000 statements, the online community has discovered many cases where famous people publicly donated large amounts of money to flood victims on their personal pages, but the statement shows only a small amount.

Such is the case of an account named Pham Nhu Phuong who transferred 500,000 VND in support on September 9. This transaction has many similar contents to the screenshot of the transfer posted by the former gymnast on her personal page. However, the numbers are different. In the posted image, although the amount is not made public, readers can see that the amount is up to hundreds of millions, but the statement is only 500,000 VND.

Vietnamese Tiktoker Anh Pi Po posted a video admitting to using a backdrop and making a scene when posting images to support people in flood-hit areas.

Or the case of tiktoker Viet Anh Pi Po. Previously, this male tiktoker shared a screenshot of an 8-digit donation to flood victims, but when "checking var" from the statement, many people discovered that the account owner Viet Anh Pi Po only donated 1,000,000 VND. On the afternoon of September 13, this male tiktoker had to go online to admit that he was "fake". On this occasion, many opinions said that in the 4.0 era, it is best to ban the collection of cash donations, suggesting that all of them be sent to accounts for transparency and easy auditing.

It can be said that the act of taking advantage of an event that is of national concern to attract likes, attract views, and profit is not new. It is like a "pandemic" for which there seems to be not enough vaccine. From attracting likes to increase personal page interactions to posting fake news for profit or acts of charity fraud that are increasing every day. In the storm and flood, in the grief of the people in the northern provinces and cities and the whole country, the above acts are cruel, deserving of condemnation and elimination.

The images of storm and flood damage themselves speak of grief and sorrow, so TikTokers and Facebookers do not need to act, nor do they need to "pretend" to deepen the pain and loss. Viewers also need to be alert, eliminate, and immediately report posts that violate the law, contributing to limiting the spread of images and video clips that are not true.

Source: https://congthuong.vn/cau-like-truc-loi-truoc-noi-dau-cua-dong-bao-la-toi-ac-345779.html