Mr. An Tien Hung (30 years old, Hanoi) said that 2 weeks ago, he received a call from the phone number 0578.98.1xxx.

On the other end of the line, the caller claimed to be an employee of the Cau Giay Tax Department and informed Mr. Hung that he was eligible for a personal income tax refund and asked him to come to the Tax Department at 8:00 a.m. the next morning to complete the tax refund procedures.

This person said that in case Mr. Hung is busy and cannot come, or wants to do the procedure quickly and receive money online, he should contact a Zalo account named T. to do the procedure.

Mr. Hung found it strange because he was not required to pay personal income tax, because his total income was less than 11 million VND/month. Thus, getting a tax refund was impossible.

Therefore, Mr. Hung proactively contacted the company accountant and the Cau Giay Tax Department to clarify whether he could get a tax refund or not. However, the company and the tax authority confirmed that Mr. Hung was not eligible for a tax refund.

Knowing that this was a scammer, Mr. Hung proactively contacted a person named T. and this person asked Mr. Hung to provide his personal ID card, personal tax code, and register an account on a website of unknown origin.

“However, when I told them I had contacted the company about whether I could get a tax refund or not, this person blocked my Zalo account and phone number, so I couldn't contact them,” said Mr. Hung.

Similarly, Ms. Hoang Bich (Hanoi) also received a call 2 weeks ago from a person claiming to be a tax officer, asking Ms. Bich to pay personal income tax according to regulations. If she did not pay, the police would call her in for questioning for tax evasion.

Ms. Bich shared: "This subject used a threatening tone, if old people, lack of knowledge, can easily be fooled."

Regarding this issue, the Ministry of Finance revealed that recently there has been a phenomenon of impersonating tax officials appearing on cyberspace.

The Ministry of Finance said that along with the strong development of information technology, recently the situation of impersonating tax authorities on cyberspace has tended to increase with the purpose of defrauding and appropriating money from people and businesses, with increasingly sophisticated tricks and methods.

To warn people and businesses to be vigilant against tricks and schemes of impersonating tax authorities to defraud and appropriate property, in recent times (especially in the period from July 15 to present), the Tax sector has implemented synchronous and widespread communication measures on mass media.

At the same time, the Ministry of Finance has directed the implementation of communication work throughout the tax system.

Specifically, on July 20, 2023, the General Department of Taxation issued Official Dispatch No. 3041/TCT-CNTT to the Tax Departments of provinces and centrally run cities to direct the implementation of the Campaign "Action Month to propagate and identify online fraud".

On August 3, 2023, the General Department of Taxation developed a set of documents with propaganda content on preventing and combating tax agency fraud in the online environment and sent them to news agencies and provincial and municipal Tax Departments to promote propaganda on mass media.

Meanwhile, according to the police, with sophisticated tricks and pre-arranged scenarios, scammers impersonating tax officials often conceal their actions by using personal Zalo avatars of officials wearing tax agency uniforms to contact and create a cover, in order to gain absolute trust from the victims.

At the same time, the subject often uses the weekend (Saturday or Sunday) to contact the victim because during this time, banks will stop accepting requests to freeze users' accounts; at the same time, the subject will proceed to appropriate assets by withdrawing money from the victim's bank account card at 1:00 - 2:00 a.m., when the victim is in deep sleep.

The police agency warns that currently, subjects not only impersonate tax officers but can also impersonate police officers, customs officers, banks or state law enforcement agencies... to ask victims to perform operations on their phones in order to defraud and appropriate property.

To proactively prevent fraud and protect your property, the Police Department recommends that all citizens need to raise their awareness and vigilance, and absolutely do not listen to or follow instructions from anyone over the phone.

For procedures under the jurisdiction of State agencies, all work is carried out directly at the agency's headquarters or with written notice from the competent agency. There is absolutely no form of online work via phone, so people should pay close attention...