C.T.N.T., residing in Nhan Binh Commune, Ly Nhan District, Ha Nam Province, said she accessed a social network and was scammed by a suspect claiming to be a social insurance worker. The suspect told her to transfer money to receive maternity benefits.

T. said she has participated in social insurance since May 2022 at Nhan Binh Garment Export Joint Stock Company. She gave birth to a child in January 2023. She submitted a dossier to the company and waited to enjoy maternity benefits.

On July 5, 2023, she accessed the social network and sent a message via Messenger to an account named Tran Thi Lan, who introduced herself as a social insurance employee to ask for support for early settlement of maternity records.

Lan sent her chip-based identity card’s image named Tran Thi Lan, born on April 5, 1984, hometown of Luong Dien Commune, Cam Giang District, Hai Duong Province; permanent residence in Dong Khe Village, Luong Dien Commune, Cam Giang District, Hai Duong Province; and ID number 030184011834, to build trust with T.

Then the suspect told T. to transfer more than VND30 million (US$1,267) to the suspect’s bank account and appropriated T.’s money.

The second case is M.T.H., of Hai Trung Commune, Hai District, Nam Dinh Province. H. is participating in social insurance at MSL Vietnam Co., Ltd in the province.

However, due to the need for money, she wanted to enjoy a lump-sum social insurance payment. According to the provisions of the Law on Social Insurance, as of July 2023, she is paying social insurance premiums, thus, she is not entitled to one-time social insurance benefits this month.

Faking a notice of the social security agency to deceive employees

When accessing a Facebook account named "Dich vu BHXH", a suspect, named Kim Oanh, introduced as “a consultant in the web portal of Viet Nam Social Security Centre".

Oanh then asked another consultant named Tran Minh Hoang to advise H. on the procedures to receive a one-time social insurance allowance via the phone number on Zalo, 0927057505. H. believed in them and transferred them an amount of up to VND100 million ($4,227).

In addition to the above-mentioned two cases, many employees lost from VND500,000 ($21) to VND2 million ($84) by fraudsters when the employees asked them to implement services of administrative procedures of the Viet Nam Social Security.

Therefore, to avoid being exploited and scammed, Viet Nam Social Security warns people when interacting on social networks that the agency does not provide administrative services of any field and does not require people to transfer money to personal accounts. People should pay attention to the warning.

When performing administrative procedures of the agency, if people have any problems, please contact the nearest local social insurance office directly, or directly contact the Customer Care and Support Service Centre under the Viet Nam Social Security via the hotline: 1900.9068; or number 0243.7899999 (during working hours) for support.

Tricks

Scammers often set up Facebook pages with the logo of the Viet Nam Social Security, and claim they support and provide services on the implementation of administrative procedures of the agency.

When employees interact with the Facebook pages via messenger, the suspects will introduce themselves as consultants of the social insurance agency and guide the employees to interact with other individuals' Facebook accounts, specialised in supporting social insurance services.

The suspects often use images of other people on social networks, even to create the trust of employees, the suspects have taken the image of the other people to attach it to a chip-based identity card’s image, changing the information to match. In addition, the suspects also provided phone numbers for employees to contact to exchange information.

Impersonating messages and fake documents are made by scammers to cheat employees

The suspects will require employees to provide social insurance numbers and chip-based ID card numbers.

After receiving the employee's information, they will send them a fake document showing personal information and the level of benefits. The benefits that the scammers make up are often much higher than reality, and the application status has not been resolved. Next, the scammers ask the employee that if they want their dossiers to be resolved soon, they need to pay the application fee. (The fee they offer is VND900,000 ($38) for every administrative procedure, such as issuance of social insurance books, settlement of one-time social insurance allowance, and settlement of maternity benefits.)

If any employee does not trust or express doubts, the suspects will use the Facebook page image of the social insurance agency with a green check mark to create trust, or introduce the employee to closed groups of the Telegram application to exchange information.

When the employee believed and asked them for help, the suspects would send the employee fake images, which show the seal and signature of the head of the agency, proving that the agency had received the dossier of the employees.

Then they asked the employee to pay the application fee and write the syntax of money transfer such as: PHI DV BHXH, TEN NGUOI LAO DONG SO DIEN THOAI or SO HO SO BHXH 1234ZYTV.

However, after the employees transferred money, the suspects will immediately notify the employee's message with incorrect syntax, then ask the employee to pay money again with the correct syntax; or the suspects will call or text the employees and say that the disbursement of the dossier is about to run out of time to urge them to pay money quickly.

To create trust, the suspects also provide to the employees the phone number of the person introduced as an officer of the social security agency, who is processing the dossier for the employee.

If the employees find out they are scammed and contact the suspects again, the suspects will immediately lock their personal pages and block phone calls.