"Hunting" bank accounts with the same name to commit fraud

After obtaining a fake bank account, the thief finds a similar account name on social networks and then contacts the victim's relatives and friends to request money transfer.

Ms. Nguyen Thu Phuong (living in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) said she received a message on the social network Facebook from her close friend named M. asking to borrow 30 million VND to pay bank interest. She trusted and transferred money because she saw that the bank account provided coincided with her close friend's real name, N.C.M. However, when she saw Mr. M. hastily pressing her, she temporarily stopped the transaction, called to confirm and discovered that the person texting to borrow money was a fake.

Easily buy a bank account

"Some of Mr. M.'s friends were scammed, but luckily it only stopped at 1-2 million VND. If I wasn't careful, I would have lost up to 30 million VND without realizing the bad guy's tricks" - Ms. Phuong said. .

Recently, Mr. Nguyen Quang Huy, a bank employee in Ho Chi Minh City, also said he was defrauded of 5 million VND with a similar trick. When his friend announced on Zalo that his account had been "hacked", Mr. Huy realized he had been trapped. "I saw the correct name of the bank account to transfer money. At that time, the thief also intentionally made a video call to show me his face and then turned it off, so I had absolutely no doubts" - Mr. Huy said.

As noted by the reporter, just enter the keyword "buy bank accounts" on the social network Facebook and a series of associations and groups buying and selling bank accounts appear. Prominent among them is the group "Buying and selling bank accounts with ATM cards - Counter Bank - Virtual Bank" with more than 100,000 members. Many articles in this group about looking to buy a bank account attracted hundreds of comments after only 1 hour of posting, mainly asking for inbox (message) for quotes.

Talking with a Facebook account named Hoang Hieu, we learned that customers only need to spend 2.5 million VND to buy CCCD, phone sim, online bank account, even physical card of any company. any bank with the desired account holder name. "Before paying, customers can check. We are committed to reputation" - Hoang Hieu's account affirmed.

Fraud on social networking platforms is increasingly sophisticated, requiring management agencies to take stronger measures. Photo: LE TINH

A representative of a state-owned commercial bank said that some banks have implemented the feature of creating nicknames for customer accounts, which crooks can take advantage of to commit fraud. "Even though the nickname is unique and not duplicated, crooks can use this feature to match the name of the impersonated customer, then scam the victim's relatives and family to appropriate money" - representative. This bank representative said.

The information technology officer of a joint stock commercial bank also pointed out that after obtaining fake bank accounts, crooks will actively go to social networking platforms such as Zalo and Facebook to find accounts. have similar names. After "hacking" the social network account, they contact regular contacts in the victim's friend list to request money transfer.

Is biometric authentication effective?

According to a representative of Tien Phong Commercial Joint Stock Bank (TPBank), the above tricks will be prevented or minimized after banks implement the State Bank's regulations requiring biometric (face) authentication. ) for money transfer transactions over 10 million VND or total transaction value per day over 20 million VND. "With biometric authentication at the time of money transfer, crooks will not be able to take advantage of fraud. This is an important step forward in efforts to prevent fraud and protect customer assets." - TPBank representative said.

At the workshop "Improving security and safety of cashless transactions" organized by the Department of Payment, Department of Communications - State Bank and Tuoi Tre Newspaper in coordination with other organizations on the afternoon of June 14, Mr. Tu Tien Phat, General Director of Asia Commercial Joint Stock Bank (ACB), said that requiring facial authentication in transfer transactions of over 10 million VND/time or over 20 million VND/day is necessary to prevent criminals from stealing. money in the account. ACB has deployed a facial authentication system and received positive feedback from customers. "After 3 days of application, 30,000 customers have performed face authentication with a process that takes less than 30 seconds" - Mr. Phat informed.

According to an expert in the field of financial and banking appraisal, the electronic identification card (eKYC) form still has loopholes that can be exploited by thieves. The crook's trick is to use information on someone's CCCD and attach it to their face to open an account. Some banks currently only require users to authenticate their faces by turning left, turning right, looking up and bending down, so they can completely use artificial intelligence (AI) to authenticate instead.

"To prevent that vulnerability, banks need to ask customers to create more smiling, angry or sad facial expressions... to express the state of a real person. Besides, there needs to be a connection with the data. country's population data, including facial data, so that when a case of fraud arises, the authorities can track down and identify the subject" - this expert commented.

Mr. Nguyen Huu Nguyen, Deputy Director of the Vietnam Cyber ​​Emergency Response Center (VNCERT), also said that the banking system needs to link with national population data to be able to detect and prevent fraud. fake bank accounts, especially in the context of increasingly developing technology. "Users need to report to the management agency about associations and groups that buy and sell bank accounts or show signs of abetting fraud on social networks so that the management agency requests the social network platform to take measures. At the same time, you need to be especially careful when someone asks to borrow money, it is best to contact them via phone number or in person" - Mr. Nguyen recommended.