3 ways to check fraudulent phone numbers to avoid the “emergency child, urgent money transfer” trick

1. Today’s popular phone scams

Some popular phone scams in recent times everyone should know to avoid:

– Recently, Hanoi Department of Education and Training has issued Official Letter 677/SGDĐT-CTTT-KHCN on being wary of tricks using telecommunications networks to cheat and appropriate property. The official letter recommends that parents and students in the whole school at all levels raise their vigilance and prevent from methods and tricks of fraudulent activities.

In addition, the official letter said that if you receive a call or text message from an unknown number informing you that the student is the child of an accident family who is being treated at the hospital, it is necessary to calmly verify. absolutely do not transfer money to the object in any form.

At the same time, parents need to immediately contact the school to verify the correct information and report it to the nearest police agency for support and help.

After the city. In the past few days, in Ho Chi Minh City and the southern provinces, the scam “I am hospitalized in an emergency, need to transfer money urgently” has appeared in Hanoi. On March 14, many schools in Hanoi simultaneously informed parents to be wary of this scam.

– Impersonating the Police, Procuracy, Court… to call people to pressure and ask for fines. Scammers will use fake numbers, then pretend to be Traffic Police to call cold fines, asking victims to pay fines to the account number they specify.

– Pretend to be a bank to call, send messages, email … to invite, provide online loans from the bank. The subjects called to guide the victim to do loan procedures, open an online account, then send a request for loan approval and payment of fees, installments… to appropriate.

Or, exploit the security information of the victim’s account number then withdraw the money in the victim’s account and disappear.

– Pretending to be an employee of a store, lottery company… calling or texting victims to inform them that they are lucky to receive a high-value reward of a certain program.

To receive this reward, the victim must purchase a product of the subject with a value higher than the market value, or transfer a taxable amount in advance to receive the reward, and then appropriate it.

2. How to check if a phone number is a scam or not?

2.1 Look up fraudulent phone numbers through the switchboard

This is considered the fastest and simplest way to look up, but not everyone who uses mobile devices understands it. Accordingly, you can contact the hotline of the switchboard for support. Currently, there are 03 popular network operators and Viettel, Vinaphone, Mobifone, specifically:

– For Viettel network operator

Method 1: Look up fraudulent Viettel phone numbers via hotline: 18008098

Method 2: Look up the scam phone number and report the scam phone number to the police with the syntax TTTB send 1414 (free) or send 195 (chargeable).

The response message will provide full information such as: Full name, date of birth, activation date of subscriber number, ID card, date of issue.

Method 3: Check the real or virtual phone number by typing *0# or *888# and then pressing the call button.

– For Mobifone network operators

Method 1: Contact the hotline of the Mobifone switchboard 18009090, press 4 for information, check the scam phone number.

Method 2: Enter the syntax *555# and then press the call button (toll free).

– For Vinaphone network operator

Method 1: Look up the fraudulent Viettel phone number via hotline: 18009091, then receive key 4. At this time, the system will notify you of your phone number information.

Method 2: Check the scam phone number via USSD code by entering *110# and pressing call.

2.2 Look up information of suspected fraud on google

In case of receiving a message or a call to announce a winning prize from a certain program, before complying with the request of the other party, it is necessary to carefully study the information of the company as well as the information of the winning program.

Accordingly, you can go to Google and check with the syntax Company name + scam, Google will return this type of search results related to this company. In case this is a scam company and has been warned before, people can easily recognize it.

If it is a phone number, it can be checked by copying and pasting the phone number on Google according to the syntax Phone number + scam.

According to the VNPT operator’s warning, phone users should be wary of missed international calls. International calls and messages will show a plus sign (+) or 00 at the beginning, the next two numbers are not 84 (Vietnam country code), for example: Modova (+373), Tunisia (+216), Equatorial Guinea (+240), Burkina Faso (+226)…

2.3 Check information through the National Cybersecurity Monitoring Center

When there is a suspicion that the incoming call is a fake phone number, the information can be checked through the National Cyber ​​Security Monitoring Center (NCSC). The testing steps are as follows:

Step 1: Access the National Cybersecurity Monitoring Center at the link https://tinnhiemmang.vn/

Step 2: Enter the name of the agency or unit you want to verify information and select Search.

Step 3: After selecting the agency or unit that needs to verify information, conduct a cross-check of all provided information against the content of the suspect call to determine if it is a scam call. island or not.

For example, when checking the information of the agency, a certain unit in the description will display address information, mobile phone number or hotline. The lookup uses this information to compare with the phone number they receive.