There is an increasing number of individuals being deceived and robbed of their assets by being invited to become online sales collaborators on counterfeit e-commerce sites through Zalo, Telegram, or phone calls.
Hanoi City Police have issued a warning, however, there are still many victims falling into the trap.
Recently, another victim lost over 3 billion VND when participating as a collaborator for a counterfeit Amazon e-commerce website.
According to the victim, through the social media platform Telegram, he was invited to become a sales collaborator with commission benefits on the website amajwzon456.top. The website has a similar interface to the Amazon e-commerce site with various stores selling different types of products.
Within the group, several “lures” confirm that they have made profits from selling products, paying taxes, and fees as requested. This leads victims to trust them.
The victim was instructed to open a store and list products provided by the individuals. When there are customers who place orders, he is required to pay the suppliers and arrange delivery to the customers. Once the order is completed, he will receive a commission. At the beginning, when he had small orders with commission benefits, he was able to withdraw money from the system.
However, as the order value and quantity increased, he had to deposit more money to pay for new orders from the suppliers. When the amount reached billions of VND, he was unable to withdraw the money with the reason that he needed to upgrade to a distributor and had to deposit an additional 1.5 billion VND to be able to withdraw.
To prevent fraud, the Hanoi City Police Cyber Security and High-tech Crime Prevention Department urges people to be cautious with calls and invitations to become collaborators of domestic and foreign e-commerce sites, pay attention to counterfeit links (cross-reference with the official e-commerce site or sites registered with the Ministry of Industry and Trade).
Online fraud is becoming more sophisticated and cunning with various methods such as delayed orders due to transportation issues or customs duties. The culprits continue to pressure the victims to deposit more money so that they don’t have time to think. When one of these websites is closed down, they create new counterfeit websites to deceive others.
People are warned to be vigilant before investing money. If encountering signs of fraud, people should contact the police to resolve the matter promptly according to regulations.
