Criminal Police Department – CATP | 08:53 11/02/2025
To: Comrades of the Regional Police, Neighborhood Groups, officers, workers, students and people.
Currently, scammers on the internet operate in a sophisticated manner with many tricks such as: online kidnapping, impersonating the police, the Procuracy, schools, fake scholarships – student support, along with all kinds of crimes such as robbery, snatching, pickpocketing in residential areas, boarding houses and public places.
🔹 We request that comrades and people increase propaganda, warnings, sharing images and contact phone numbers below so that when detecting suspicious signs, they can promptly report:
🚨 Warning of new “ONLINE KIDNAPPING” tricks: Impersonating international study abroad scholarships – manipulating students’ psychology, appropriating billions of dong
Recently, in Ho Chi Minh City, a new type of fraud has appeared – subjects impersonating international scholarship programs, impersonating major domestic universities affiliated with foreign schools, to defraud and appropriate property. Worryingly, the victims are mainly students and parents, with the amount of money appropriated up to billions of dong.
If in the past, cybercriminals often impersonated the Police, the Procuracy, the Court to threaten and intimidate the victims, now they have switched to more sophisticated tricks – attacking the trust, dreams of studying abroad and the studious mentality of young people.
Case 1: Forging a Canadian study abroad scholarship program – Appropriating 1 billion VND
At 13:00 on October 28, 2025, Mr. H.N.L. residing in Ho Chi Minh City reported that his daughter, H.K.L. (born in 2006, a student at the Medical School), showed signs of being scammed and lost contact.
According to Mr. L., on October 27, 2025, his daughter said she was completing the procedures to receive a “Canada study abroad scholarship” and asked the family to transfer 1 billion VND to “pay the fee and prove financial status”. Trusting his daughter, Mr. L. transferred the money as requested.
Immediately after that, H.K.L. continued to transfer the entire amount of 1 billion VND to account number 8816XXXXXX – account holder Le Quang Linh (Bank) according to the subject’s instructions.
When the subjects continued to request an additional 1 billion VND to ‘redeem the person’, Mr. L. became suspicious and reported to the police.
After checking, the Criminal Police Department (PC02) working group coordinated with the Tang Nhon Phu Ward Police, Thu Duc City to promptly rescue the victim at room 26C, 160 La Xuan Oai Street at 2:50 p.m. the same day.
The victim confessed that the subjects had manipulated his psychology and remotely controlled him via social networks, making him believe that he was legally applying for a study abroad visa, so he followed all the instructions.
🔹 Case 2: University student was scammed with a “Chinese study abroad scholarship” – lost more than 3.4 billion VND
At about 9:00 a.m. on October 29, 2025, N.C.M.T. (Born in 2007, residing in Ho Chi Minh City – student at a University in Ho Chi Minh City) told his family that he went to school as usual.
In the afternoon of the same day, his family suddenly received sensitive photos of T. sent via Zalo, with a threat that if he did not transfer 200 million VND, he would be spread on social networks.
The family could not contact T. so they reported to the ward police.
After verification, the police discovered that T. was staying at Thanh Thao Hotel in Cho Lon Ward, so they checked and brought him to the headquarters to clarify.
- confessed that from October 25 to 28, 2025, he was contacted by subjects to invite him to participate in a “Chinese study abroad scholarship”, and asked to transfer a deposit for documents and procedure fees.
Trusting, the family transferred a total of 3.45 billion VND to T, then T. transferred all of it to the scammers via 8816XXXXXXX – account holder Le Quang Linh (Bank).
The total amount of money appropriated was more than 3 billion VND.
⚠️ Identifying new tricks
The above cases show that the criminals’ tricks are increasingly sophisticated, strongly attacking the psychology of parents’ love of learning and trust in their children.
The subjects manipulate the victims’ psychology, asking them to record videos and pictures, leave the house, cut off contact, making the parents think their children were really kidnapped and transfer money as requested. All were controlled via social networks, Zalo, Facebook or Telegram.
Notably, in both cases, the account receiving the money was named “Le Quang Linh – BIDV Bank”, showing a high possibility that this is a professional scam ring targeting students and parents.
🔸 Recommendations from the Police
Ho Chi Minh City Police recommends that people, especially parents with students, should note:
- Absolutely do not transfer money according to any request to “pay scholarships” or “study abroad fees” without verification from the school or competent authorities.
- Do not trust images or messages from your children if there are unusual signs – you need to contact the school, friends directly, or immediately report to the local police.
- Schools need to strengthen management and monitoring of class attendance and attendance, especially for newly enrolled students; if a student is found to be unusually absent, the family should be notified immediately.
- Parents should proactively seek out and verify scholarship information through the official website of the university, embassy, Ministry of Education & Training,
