Warning about sophisticated scams on social networks "blooming" at the end of the year

The end of the year is the time when scammers actively work to appropriate people's money and assets. In particular, sophisticated tricks on social networks or through messaging applications "flourished".

Warning about sophisticated scams on social networks "blooming" at the end of the year

The end of the calendar year and close to the Lunar New Year is an opportunity for many people to increase shopping, transfer money or look for part-time jobs... this is also an opportunity for scammers to launch very sophisticated "tricks". to appropriate money, property or personal information of unsuspecting and gullible people.

In particular, scammers are taking advantage of new technologies such as deepfake, artificial intelligence... to launch very sophisticated tricks, making victims easily trapped.

Below are scams that are "flourishing" on social networks at the end of the year that readers need to understand to avoid becoming victims of bad guys.

Impersonate relatives to scam money via Zalo, Messenger

In fact, this is not a new trick, but many people still fall victim to scammers, in some cases even losing hundreds of millions of dong because of this scam.

Accordingly, scammers will use malicious code, malware... to take over other people's Facebook accounts. Then, they will impersonate the Facebook account owner and text people on their friends list to borrow money.

Subject Phan Huynh Quynh Nhu used a popular trick on Zalo to appropriate 800 million VND, and was recently arrested by Hue city police (Photo: Thua Thien Hue Police).

Subject Phan Huynh Quynh Nhu used a popular trick on Zalo to appropriate 800 million VND, and was recently arrested by Hue city police (Photo: Thua Thien Hue Police).

Notably, after taking over another person's Facebook account, scammers will carefully read the message content to find the victim's acquaintances, grasp that person's relationships... making it easier for them to Easily persuade others to borrow their money.

In addition, scammers will target wealthy families and distant relatives, then create Zalo social network accounts impersonating the victim's relatives to text messages to borrow money.

Using this form of fraud, a subject in Hue city appropriated 800 million VND from a victim. Recently, this subject was arrested by Thua Thien Hue province police.

What to do to avoid this scam?

In fact, impersonating relatives on Zalo as well as other social networking platforms such as Facebook, WhatsApp... to text and borrow money is not a new trick. Therefore, everyone should be vigilant to avoid becoming victims of scammers and immediately notify authorities when they discover they have been scammed through social networking platforms.

When someone borrows money, call them directly via phone number, instead of calling via Zalo or video calling. In addition, if the borrower lives in the same locality, ask them to meet in person if they need to borrow money, instead of contacting via social networks.

Using A.I and deepfake to create images and videos for fraud and blackmail purposes