In early September, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police said that Ms. Yen claimed to have received a message from a newly created Zalo account named Nguyen Thi Oanh - a long-time close friend. This is actually an account created by a crook to impersonate Ms. Oanh. Seeing the word "stranger" displayed when making friends, Ms. Yen wondered and this person explained that Oanh's phone was being held by her husband, while she had personal matters that she did not want him to know about, so she used another Zalo for convenient contact.
Next, "Fake Oanh" told Ms. Yen not to text her old Zalo account because she was afraid her husband would query her if she read it. The two had known each other for a long time and were in frequent contact, so Ms. Yen trusted her to do as requested. After that, "Fake Oanh" asked Ms. Yen to call "Real Oanh" via Facebook, pretending to have an urgent matter and wanted to borrow 100 million VND, and would pay it in full the next morning.
In order for "Real Oanh" to believe that Ms. Yen needs money, "Fake Oanh" texted her friend to "act deeply" when calling, and also asked "Real Oanh" to turn on the speakerphone for her husband to listen, to avoid suspicion from relatives.
Ms. Yen said that at this time, she implicitly understood that she was helping her friend have money to take care of personal matters without wanting her husband to know, so she followed suit. Ms. Yen then called "Real Oanh" on Facebook messenger and started mentioning borrowing money as instructed by "Fake Oanh".
Ms. "Oanh Truly" heard her close friend say she had urgent business and needed to borrow money, so she believed her. After a while of chatting, she transferred 100 million VND to Ms. Yen's account. Receiving the money, Ms. Yen returned to the "Fake Oanh" Zalo account that was texting her and said: "I received it".
"Fake Oanh" continued to send another account, asking Ms. Yen to transfer money there. Thinking that this is the address you want me to send money to after completing the loan, Ms. Yen followed suit and transferred the 100 million VND she just received.
"Just after transferring 100 million VND, the 'Fake Oanh' Zalo account blocked contact. I was shocked and realized I had been scammed," Ms. Yen explained.
According to the police, in this case, the thief "researched" very carefully Facebook, the relationship between friends and family members of the two people, then took the phone number that Ms. Yen had posted online to find Zalo to make friends with Ms. Oanh.
What's different from many common impersonation tricks is that the two close friends in real life actually talked to each other. Ms. Oanh's Facebook account is real, her voice is real, and the bank account that initially received the money also belongs to Ms. Yen.
The thief calculated the scenario so that he would not have to directly impersonate Ms. Oanh when talking to both of them. The subtle point lies in "Fake Oanh"'s statement that she must "act deeply" so that "Real Oanh" can turn on the speakerphone for her husband to listen. Asking Ms. "Real Oanh" to turn on the speakerphone is just a story that the crooks made up, the goal is to make Ms. Yen call her real friend, not just text. Calling will make it easier to borrow money, because when two people talk back and forth, suspicions about fraud by hacking accounts or deepfake can be eliminated, from there it will be easier for "Oanh Tru" to lend money if she has money.
"The crooks did not need to impersonate Oanh and Yen's voices. They stood between the script director so that the two real people could talk to each other, but in the same online phone call, the two women understood two different stories," the police said.
Through Ms. Yen's presentation, the crooks also calculated in advance the case that "Real Oanh" did not have enough 100 million VND. In the message, they told Ms. Yen that if Ms. Oanh said she didn't have enough money, she would reply: "I'll borrow as much as I have left." If they didn't mention anything, that's it.
Because not everyone has 100 million VND in their account, criminals almost have pre-written dialogue and ways to handle situations, helping the conversation flow naturally and increasing the likelihood of transactions being made.
The thief texted in the chat: "If you receive the money, please let me know." This means that when receiving money from "Real Oanh", Ms. Yen sent a message to the "Fake Oanh" Zalo account. Yen thought she was telling her friend, but in fact she was telling the crook that the money had entered her account. Knowing that Yen had just had money, they sent it to another account and said: "Please move here to help me".
After Ms. Yen's transfer transaction, the drama ended and the money fell into the hands of criminals.
The investigation agency said that this is a new, very sophisticated scam and recommends that when receiving messages asking for a loan or money transfer, people need to verify both the contact person and the purpose of the transaction. Calling an acquaintance directly is necessary, but in unusual situations like the above, there are still errors in the number, so you need to ask the full situation again, avoid relying only on a call or voice for confirmation.
