Ministry of Education and Training warns against "online kidnapping" tricks

The Ministry of Education and Training cited information from the Criminal Police Department, Ministry of Public Security, saying that recently, in Hanoi, Quang Ninh, Ho Chi Minh City, there have been consecutive cases of subjects impersonating the police force, the prosecutor's office, and the court calling to threaten and psychologically manipulate children, students, and pupils.

Fake calls are made to trick students who are involved in a case under investigation, then request that their families be notified and a ransom be transferred, in what is called “online kidnapping.”

In particular, there was a case of a subject luring and guiding children to travel from Hanoi to Ho Chi Minh City to border localities to Cambodia for " tourism ", with specific steps.

Initially, the subject used a strange phone number, impersonating the police, the prosecutor's office, or the court to call the victims, who were usually children, students, and made up accusations such as: being involved in drugs, money laundering, wanted or having an arrest warrant from the prosecutor's office, the court, etc., to create panic and loss of composure in the victims.

Next, the subjects will manipulate the victim's psychology, asking them to keep it a secret, not to tell anyone, forcing or instructing the victim to leave their residence and rent a place such as a motel or hotel to stay alone.

Finally, the subject instructs the victim to cut off contact with relatives, only contacting the subjects via phone numbers or other applications. There are also cases where they threaten the victim to provide sensitive images and clips...

According to the Ministry of Education and Training, the methods used by the subjects are texting or calling the family directly to inform them that the victim is being kidnapped, threatening to cut off their fingers, posting sensitive images and clips of the victim online, or forcing the victim to contact their family and report being kidnapped to request money to be transferred to the victim's account or the group's account.

After receiving the money, they cut off contact and left the victim in further panic, with the family losing a large amount of property.

Faced with the above situation, the Ministry of Education and Training requests that the Departments of Education and Training and educational institutions coordinate with local police forces to increase propaganda and dissemination to teachers, students and families about the above-mentioned fraud methods and tricks.

Educational institutions coordinate with families and localities to propagate and share complex issues on cyberspace with students, helping them raise awareness and prevention skills.

In particular, the Ministry of Education and Training also requested that schools coordinate with the police force to make a list of students showing signs of academic decline, truancy, and being at risk of being exploited and lured by cyber criminals...

"Educational institutions need to have the phone numbers of the local police, the ward/commune police chief, and the criminal hotline so that if an incident occurs, there will be timely support and handling from the authorities," the Ministry of Education and Training requested.

Dan Tri reported earlier that the issue of "online kidnapping" is hotter than ever as dozens of cases have occurred across the country recently. In Ho Chi Minh City alone, there was a day when the police had to rescue two victims at the same time.

The most recent case of "online kidnapping" was with male student TTH (born 2005). H. is a 3rd year student at Ho Chi Minh City University of Technology.

On the morning of August 2, H. received a call from a stranger, claiming to be an officer of the prosecutor's office. The other party informed H. that he was involved in a money laundering ring and asked the male student to come to a secluded place to talk, and to keep it a secret and not reveal it to anyone else.

After the conversation, H. left the dormitory and rented a hotel room in Dien Hong ward to self-isolate.

Next, H. moved to rent a room at PL Hotel on Nguyen Chi Thanh Street, about 200m from HA Hotel, following the orders of the group of scammers.

While alone in the hotel, H. used the Zoom app to communicate with the group. During this time, the male student transferred money 5 times as requested by the scammers, totaling 129 million VND.

The incident of H. being “kidnapped online” was discovered when the scammers contacted Mr. T.D.T. (born in 1975, residing in Lam Dong province, H.’s father) to inform him that they were kidnapping his son and asked the family to transfer 600 million VND in ransom. Fearing for his son’s life, Mr. T. informed Mr. LVT (born in 1976, residing in Ho Chi Minh City) of this and asked him to report it to the police.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/giao-duc/bo-gddt-canh-bao-nhung-thu-doan-bat-coc-online-20250812224356404.htm