Fake TikTok shop sends free gifts, "pickpockets" billions of dong

The mentality of "it's good to win, it's okay to lose" makes many people not suspicious and fall into scams on the TikTok platform.

Sweet trap

Beware of cyber scams.

Using the trick of impersonating TikTok Company , scammers call customers to inform them that they are "lucky to win a 0 VND gratitude gift" with no shipping fee. The subjects will clearly read the victim's address and confirm it to send the gift. However, the gifts received are only cheap items such as towels, toothbrushes, and cotton swabs.

The more dangerous part lies in the seemingly harmless detail – the scratch-off ticket with a QR code printed on it. When scanning the code, the victim is lured to strange websites or applications, asked to provide personal information, bank accounts, and from there the money in the account evaporates without a trace. In some cases, the victim is asked to make friends on Zalo with the “company” account to receive gifts.

Free gifts were sent to the victims by the subjects.

This trick is even more sophisticated when many victims are invited to join Zalo and Facebook groups with the promise of receiving large rewards if they complete “tasks” such as sharing videos or winning lucky draws. Step by step, they are led into a spiral of transferring money, paying “fees” or “deposits”, and then losing everything.

Many victims reported that their personal information such as name, address, and workplace were well known to the subject, causing them to lose their guard. Some people, despite realizing the abnormality and refusing to accept the gifts, were still continuously harassed by phone or text messages.

Mr. NL (Cau Giay District, Hanoi) said: “I felt suspicious when the caller knew my name and work address. When I refused to accept the gift, the other side immediately hung up.”

Many other cases such as Mr. Ngoc Long (Thanh Hoa) or Ms. Tran Thuy Huong (Hanoi) fell into the trap, losing from several million to hundreds of millions of dong just because they wanted a free gift, then were lured into paying a "reward fee" or "mission fee".

Large-scale fraud ring busted

On February 12, 2025, Dak Lak Provincial Police in coordination with the Ministry of Public Security dismantled an inter-provincial fraud ring operating in this form. During an urgent inspection of a house in Krong Pak District, the authorities discovered nearly 50 subjects operating on computers, making fraudulent calls.

The seized evidence included 45 computers, 180GB of stolen personal data and many other pieces of evidence. According to the preliminary investigation, each day, the group illegally used the information of about 50,000 people, making more than 100,000 fraudulent calls nationwide. The total amount of money appropriated amounted to thousands of billions of VND.

Notably, their operations are very methodical with clearly divided functional departments: data collection department, consulting script department and professional fake website operating system, aiming to "perform" a complete fraud before taking action to appropriate assets.

Cao Bang Provincial Police have also discovered a sophisticated scam impersonating TikTok Shop to steal personal information and appropriate property.

According to the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department of Cao Bang Provincial Police, scammers sent free parcels to people who did not order them, along with flyers bearing the "TikTok Shop" logo and a scratch-off QR code. When scanning this code, the victims were directed to a fake Facebook account, from which they were asked to provide personal information, interact on TikTok and download a strange application called TIKSERVE (outside of official app stores).

The TIKSERVE app requests access to almost all personal data on the user’s phone. After installation, victims are lured into performing simple “tasks” and then lured into chat groups with the promise of receiving gifts or refunds with commissions if they “donate to charity”. However, when someone warns them, they are immediately removed from the group.

When QR codes become a “doorway” for high-tech crime

Faced with increasingly sophisticated tricks, cyber security experts have continuously warned: QR codes, which are simply information displayed in the form of two-dimensional (2D) images with a black and white matrix structure, are being turned into attack tools.

The essence of a QR code is that the data is encoded so that mobile devices, especially smartphones, can scan and read it easily. Opening the camera and scanning a QR code does not technically immediately infect the phone with malware or take control of it. However, the real danger begins when the user clicks on a strange link that the QR code leads to, or downloads an application of unknown origin. In that moment, the phone can be infected with all kinds of malware or spyware.

Scratch-off tickets are used to lure victims into elaborate scams.

These malwares silently take control of devices, steal passwords, bank OTP codes, and even directly interfere with financial transactions. Not only does the money in the account “disappear”, social network accounts, personal emails – the most sensitive data of users – are also easily stolen. From a seemingly harmless action, users turn themselves into victims of high-tech crimes.

According to experts, part of the reason for the outbreak of this form of fraud is the alarming level of personal data leakage. According to a report by the National Cyber ​​Security Association (NCA), in 2024, the situation of personal data leakage in Vietnam continued to be complicated and serious, with 66.24% of users confirming that their information had been used illegally. Customer data storage systems at supermarkets, hotels, e-commerce platforms, etc. have unintentionally become "treasure troves" for cybercriminals to exploit.

Lawyer Mai Thanh Binh (Ho Chi Minh City Bar Association) emphasized: “All acts of buying and selling user data will be strictly handled according to the law. People need to be absolutely careful when providing personal information, especially in online transactions.”

According to cybersecurity experts, users need to be extremely careful if they accidentally click on strange links or download software of unknown origin. The first thing to do is to disconnect from the Internet, back up data, then restore the device to factory settings and immediately change all passwords for important accounts such as banks, email, and social networks.

In addition, people are advised to only download applications from official stores such as CH Play or App Store, and absolutely do not scan strange QR codes or click on links of unknown origin. Enabling protection features such as Google Play Protect, regularly updating the operating system and using reputable anti-virus software are necessary measures to minimize the risk of intrusion. Banks also encourage users to set online transfer limits to limit damage in the worst case scenario.

Ho Chi Minh City Police and many other localities have emphasized that no gift is “free” if the recipient has to provide personal information or transfer money in any form. Calls announcing winning prizes, chat groups asking to perform “tasks” to receive commissions or charitable donations can all be traps. When there are signs of suspicion, people need to immediately contact the bank to freeze the account, and report to the authorities for timely support.

Dear readers, please watch the video: Stealing bank accounts by locking accounts. Source: Hanoi Television.

Source: https://khoahocdoisong.vn/gia-tiktok-shop-gui-qua-0-dong-moc-tui-hang-ty-dong-post269114.html