Persistent stalking, intent to defraud
In recent days, Mr. MVV, residing in Ward 15, District 10 (HCMC), has frequently received calls claiming to be from the ward police, urging him to come to the ward police headquarters to get an identification code. Always grasping information early and complying with administrative management regulations, Mr. V. had completed the identification requests in advance, so he suspected that this was a scam phone call. Reporting this case to the local authorities, Mr. MVV learned that many people had also received the same phone calls as him. "The head of the residential group has sent a direct notification of the phone number of the subject who often uses it to scam, and at the same time warned that if this happens, they must hang up immediately and report to the local police for monitoring. As for the network operators, in my opinion, if these subscribers are determined to be scammers, they should block them immediately to avoid causing damage," Mr. MVV suggested.
MVV's suggestion is well-founded because many people lose their money just by losing their vigilance for a moment. Ms. DBY, living in Binh Hung Hoa A Ward, Binh Tan District, 80 years old, was scammed of hundreds of millions of dong because she trusted a strange phone number calling to inform her of winning a prize. Talking to Thanh Nien reporter, Ms. DBY sobbed and said: "My family is poor and difficult, my eldest son's business is losing money and he is in debt, I don't have much money either, when I received a call from a shopping mall employee informing me of a winning purchase, I naively followed. They told me that if I placed an order during that time frame, I would receive a prize, and the items were promised to be collected. I didn't suspect anything but just borrowed money and bought them, eventually incurring a debt of more than 100 million dong." Being old and not familiar with using the phone, Ms. Y. recorded the incoming calls and the content of the conversation in a notebook. Among them, many of the subscribers used to scam the old lady started with 028888...
The phone number of the scam call was recorded by the victim DBY (80 years old).
Can you block or lock it?
Responding to Thanh Nien reporters about the situation of phone numbers frequently calling to advertise and offer unwanted services, representatives of some network operators said that they have applied a system to classify and report spam SIMs automatically, free of charge for customers. "If any subscriber is frequently reported for using telesales beyond the limit, the system will record and block that SIM. This is one of the solutions that the network operator has implemented to prevent spam SIMs," said a representative of a network operator.
However, nowadays, not only mobile subscribers but also phone users are "terrorized", harassed, threatened, and scammed through virtual switchboard subscribers, through internet calling applications... so prevention is even more difficult.
Online fraud is everywhere, in every field.
Mr. NTC, a technology expert, commented: "Technically, switchboards or subscribers who want to operate and make calls must go through the systems and frequencies of network operators. Except for cross-border fraud, in reality, prevention is not impossible, no matter what technology is used. Just need to determine the real destination, which unit has sold the information and impose heavy fines, issue a business ban, then it can be completely limited. In addition, network operators need to have subscriber or user credit scores. Any user who violates will have their credit points deducted. The lower the score, the higher the fee coefficient. When the score runs out, the subscriber will be banned for several years. If all network operators join together, they will gradually eliminate personnel in this junk advertising industry. The parent company in Europe that I used to work for has applied this solution to many governments, it eliminates more than 98% of junk calls."
Sharing the same opinion, Mr. Vo Do Thang, Director of Athena Cyber Security Training Center, affirmed: "In terms of technical connection as well as administrative management, whether it is a virtual network operator or a virtual switchboard, it must operate through connections with licensed frequency bands, or more precisely, it must cooperate with official network operators. Thus, in terms of management, the authorities have tools to limit, lock or immediately block subscribers who show signs of violation, have fraudulent intentions or have been publicly declared as fraudulent. The most important issue is whether the agencies want to do it thoroughly or not, because currently, subscribers are the source of revenue for network operators, using a lot of services, making a lot of calls will make them revenue".
Responding to Thanh Nien about measures to handle subscribers identified as scammers, Mr. Nguyen Thanh Phuc, Director of the Department of Telecommunications (Ministry of Information and Communications), affirmed: "Tightening the management of junk SIMs, limiting the situation of scam calls and advertising calls is a task that the Department of Telecommunications is closely directing. If any violations are detected, we will handle them immediately. For subscribers that have been announced as violators, the Department will direct immediate locking and blocking to avoid cases of harassment, fraud, and causing damage to people."
According to statistics, in 2023, the information security warning portal recorded nearly 16,000 reports of online fraud, causing losses of more than VND 390,000 billion. Of which, 91% of the information was related to the financial sector, the rate of users receiving online scam messages and calls was 73%. Faced with the above situation, network operators have issued warnings to phone users to be especially vigilant with international missed calls. International calls and messages will display a plus sign (+) or 00 at the beginning, the next 2 numbers are not 84 (Vietnam country code), for example: Moldova (+373), Tunisia (+216), Equatorial Guinea (+240), Burkina Faso (+226) ...
Domestic prefixes include: +1900, +024, +028...In which prefix +1900 includes the following phone numbers: 19003439, 19004510, 19002191, 19003441 19002170, 19002446, 19001095, 19002190, 19002196, 19004562, 19003440, 19001199.
The prefix +024 includes the following phone numbers: 02439446395, 02499950060, 02499954266, 0249997041, 02444508888, 02499950412, 0249997037, 02499997044, 02499950212, 02499950036, 0249997038, 0249992623, 0249997035, 0249994266, 02499985212, 0245678520, 02499985220, 0249997044.
The prefix +028 includes the following phone numbers: 02899964439, 2856786501, 02899964438, 02899964437, 02873034653, 02899950012, 02873065555, 02899964448, 02822000266, 0287108690, 02899950015, 02899958588, 02871099082, 02899996142.
How do countries fight online fraud?
In China, since 2015, the government has deployed a large-scale cybercrime suppression system with the participation of 25 state agencies from different fields, led by the Ministry of Public Security. The authorities have opened nearly 4,000 social media accounts nationwide to promote anti-fraud propaganda, creating a strong wave, calling on the online community to step up vigilance and expose online fraud.
Russia is also a country with extensive experience in combating cyber fraud. In July 2017, Russia approved the "Digital Economy of the Russian Federation" program in the context of the country facing rampant cybercrime. The program's goal is to strengthen security, develop mechanisms for early threat detection and improve crime prevention. The Central Bank of Russia has also deployed the FinCERT Emergency Response Team. The main task of this department is to analyze data from cyberattacks and then make recommendations on money transfer orders to ensure user safety.
Source: https://thanhnien.vn/cong-khai-so-dien-thoai-lua-dao-chan-luon-duoc-khong-185240528205747793.htm
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