Impersonation of Reputable Brokerage Companies for
Fraud
Lieutenant General
Tô Ân Xô
, Spokesperson for the Ministry of Public Security, has provided advisory information for citizens and investors on how fraudsters are impersonating
reputable brokerage companies
to commit fraud. When victims can no longer send more money or have suspicions, these individuals lock their accounts and seize their money.
According to Lieutenant General Tô Ân Xô, the methods commonly used by these individuals are: Taking advantage of the psychological factor of profit and lack of knowledge of citizens and some investors, these individuals pretend to be employees of reputable brokerage companies, making calls to people and inviting them to join groups (
Group
chats) and online courses on stock market investment.
When the victims agree to join the chat groups and closed groups, the individuals continue to introduce investment opportunities with high returns by purchasing stock codes on the Vietnamese stock market at a lower price than the current market price. To receive these offers, the individuals have instructed victims to access the Website links or install
App
applications on their mobile devices, which they provide.
Understanding the psychology of investors, when victims register accounts on the websites and apps on their phones, the individuals continue to entice them to participate in online investment groups for each stock code with potential in the stock market. Here, the victims are explained by the individuals that reputable
Financial investment funds
have partnered with
brokerage companies
and therefore are supported and have high incentives; or that the enterprise issues individual shares, shares for employees, and invites victims to buy back the stock quotas of officers and employees at a much lower price than the market price…
To build trust, the individuals have provided victims with legal documents of the investment fund such as: Certificate of establishment of the investment fund issued by the State Securities Commission, business license, Certificate of
bank
supervision… and the bank account that receives money is also named as the Company’s account, Investment Fund with promises of high interest rates, if there are losses they will be compensated, and the purchase price of the stock codes through the Investment Funds will be offered from 15% -30% compared to the current trading price. The information provided by these individuals allows victims to easily search and find matching information on the Internet and immediately trust the legal documents provided by these individuals.
Also according to the Spokesperson of the Ministry of Public Security, many victims have believed the promises of these individuals, deposited money into the application, and continuously made profits, even many times the profit in the first few trading sessions. Investors are also shown many profitable accounts of other investors (fake accounts created by them). In reality, this is a method of creating virtual transactions to create trust, entice, and attract victims to deposit more money into the investment account.
However, when victims want to withdraw money, the application reports an error or that the Fund’s corresponding limit has not been reached. At this time, the individuals will relentlessly entice, persuade, and coerce victims into transferring more money into their accounts with reasons such as: Wrong content submitted so the system has not yet recorded, paid taxes, fees to be able to withdraw money…
Many People Are Psychologically Manipulated
Many victims, who have transferred large sums of money into their accounts, are easily psychologically manipulated and must transfer more money or they will lose the previously deposited money. When the victims are no longer able to transfer money, the individuals will deactivate the victim’s account or make it so that the victim’s account cannot be logged into in order to seize the money that the victim has transferred into the App. When discovering the fraud, the individuals have deleted the victim’s account from the groups on social networks and blocked communication with the victim. The current verification and search work has encountered many difficulties because most of the Group chats have addresses outside the territory of Vietnam.
In light of the above methods, the Public Security force recommends the following to citizens and investors: Absolutely do not listen to and follow the enticements of financial investments on the Internet that will bring high profits, especially when you do not have knowledge about securities. Absolutely do not join Group chats or invest in Websites, Apps without carefully researching information about the managing unit. At the same time, people need to seek information from many sources, especially reputable sources such as: The website of the State Securities Commission; financial and banking information websites… If you have an investment need, people can choose stock trading platforms licensed by the State…
In case of suspicion that individuals are committing fraud to seize assets, citizens and investors need to immediately report to the nearest public security agency for timely support and handling…