Tax fraud impersonation scams on the rise

The General Department of Taxation informed that the situation of fraud via text messages, websites, and apps impersonating tax authorities is increasing in level and frequency.

The General Department of Taxation (Ministry of Finance) continues to issue warnings to the business community and taxpayers about social platforms advertising online services about domain names and apps set up by bad actors to defraud tax authorization.

This agency said that some subjects impersonated tax officials and called people to instruct them to access the link "gdtgov.cfd" to download a fake General Department of Taxation App to update their Citizen Identification Numbers in their business registration records. There were cases where subjects impersonated tax authorities to request payment of personal income tax.

To avoid being scammed, the General Department of Taxation warns businesses and people not to accept paid postal items "Tax Law Documents". In case of doubt, taxpayers should contact the focal points of the Tax Department and Branch in the area for support via the phone numbers listed on the websites of the Departments with the Vietnamese national domain name ".vn".

In case of receiving messages on social networking platforms and unusual calls or signs of fraud, taxpayers need to save evidence such as messages, phone numbers or call recordings.

Taxpayers also provide available evidence to the functional units of the police and tax authorities, requesting consideration and handling of violations of the subjects according to regulations. All tax-related information is publicly available on the website (gdt.gov.vn).

Recently, local authorities have repeatedly issued warnings about fraudulent tricks in cyberspace. Vinh Phuc Tax Department has recorded that in Lap Thach area, there are subjects instructing taxpayers to access links to install unofficial software to look up tax obligations.

The Ha Tinh Police electronic information portal also cited the case of a company director in the area who was directed to access the link "dvcgov.lol" and installed on his phone to declare corporate tax exemptions. As a result, this person was scammed by a scammer who appropriated nearly 100 million VND by gaining access to the phone and copying the operations to access bank account cards, passwords, and OTP codes.

In April, the Ho Chi Minh City Tax Department also warned people to be wary of some people impersonating tax officials to instruct users to install applications to steal money.

Duc Minh

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