The Ministry of Public Security warns of scams using Deepfake technology during the holidays of April 30 and May 1

The Ministry of Public Security has just issued a warning to take advantage of the increased travel demand of the people. On the holidays of April 30 and May 1 and the upcoming summer vacation, fraud crimes increase.

According to the Ministry of Public Security, taking advantage of the psychology of a part of Vietnamese people who want to travel cheaply, criminals have increased fraudulent activities to appropriate people’s property in many forms.

Some common scam methods that subjects frequently use are as follows: Posting advertising articles selling tours, cheap hotel rooms on the Internet and social networks with many attached utilities, topics. Suggest the victim transfer the deposit (from 30-50% of the value) to deposit the tour, hotel room, thereby appropriating the deposit amount.

Post an article to advertise foreign tourist visa services, commit to a high success rate, 100% refund if you can’t get a visa. After the victim transfers the payment of the cost or part of the cost, the subjects will let the victim declare the declaration information, complete the dossier, etc. Then, they use the excuse that the victim declares the missing information and no refund.

Fake website/fanpage of a reputable travel company, fake photos of receipts, payment invoices and ask victims to transfer payment for tour expenses. After customers transfer money to pay for travel services, the subjects will block contact and erase all traces.

Forging / hijacking social media users’ accounts, contacting relatives in the friends list saying that they are stuck while traveling abroad and need an immediate amount of money.

Subjects can use Deepfake technology (technology that applies artificial intelligence to create videos with images and character faces identical to the image of the person that the subjects want to fake) and perform video calls (images) to make victims believe that they are talking to their loved ones and that the need to borrow money is real, thereby transferring money to the subjects.

Objects impersonated air ticket agents, created their own websites, social networking sites, with URL addresses, similar designs to channels of official airlines or agents, and then advertised at different levels. The price is very attractive compared to the common ground to attract customers.

If the customer contacts, the objects will book the plane ticket, send the booking code as a message and ask the customer to pay. After receiving payment, the subjects did not issue airline tickets and cut off contact. Since the booking code has not been issued to the ticket, it will self-destruct after a while and the customer will only know this when arriving at the airport.

To avoid being scammed by the above-mentioned tricks, the Ministry of Public Security recommends that people: Read carefully the information when choosing travel packages, should choose the service of booking tours, booking rooms, and booking flights of the most popular tourist destinations. reputable companies or through travel apps (travel apps).

For more peace of mind, people can ask the partner to show the business license, papers, practice certificate … of the travel and tourism company. Along with that, be wary of receiving an offer to buy a travel package at a very cheap price (30-50% cheaper than the general market price); Be especially cautious when the travel agency requests a deposit to secure your spot, and if possible, make the payment in person.

Pay attention to the signs of fake website recognition through website name and domain name. Usually, the names of fake websites will be similar to the names of real websites, but there will be some extra or missing characters. Fake domain names often use strange extensions such as .cc, .xyz, .tk…

For social networking sites (Fanpage) to buy, sell and promote travel packages, especially cheap travel packages, cheap air tickets, people should choose social networking sites with green ticks. registered account) or choose reputable social networking sites where you know the seller’s information well.

Reconfirm booking information, book flight tickets to promptly detect signs of fraud, report it to the nearest police agency for guidance.