Hanoi Times - There are two aspects of o­nline swindling: the first is selling goods at very low prices so buyers will ignore safety in transaction as they may think that if they lose, the money is not much; the second is using a huge amount of money as a decoy to stir greed.

Some are very vigilant to swindles of several thousands or tens of thousands of USD but when the bait is up to hundreds of thousands or millions of USD, they may think “if I try it, I lose nothing, perhaps the money is real” and finally they lose real money.

Here are some popular o­nline swindles that have been discovered in Vietnam in recent years.

Cheating in sales

The cheater offers for sales an item at cheap price, for example a Gucci bag worth several thousands of USD is advertised for just US $1,000. After transferring money, the buyer will receive the bag that is exactly as the o­ne introduced o­n the website, but the product is a copy product worth several tens of USD, which is abundant in Hong Kong. Worse, the buyer loses their money because the swindler seeks every reason to not send the item.

On some o­nline forums in Vietnam, sometimes members accuse some cheaters of this kind, who sell fake products, mainly clothes and cosmetics, though they advertise they are brand name products.

Cheaters often build up trust of buyers by selling authentic, low-value goods at the prices that are below their true prices before performing the great trick. The victims often sustain the swindle rather than taking legal proceeding against the cheater because they are afraid of losing time.

Nigeria scam

Originating from Nigeria, the swindlers send emails asking the victims to lend their account to transfer several hundreds of thousands of USD to receive 30% of the sum. The cheaters often call themselves children of a corrupted official and o­nly the intermediate account of the victim can help them withdraw the corrupted money. If the victims swallow the bait, the cheaters will cleverly guide them to transfer money as a formality fee, normally several thousands of USD. After receiving the money, the cheaters disappear.

In Vietnam, it is difficult to define losses of this kind because the victims, who are often businessmen, choose to keep silent to maintain their face.

Winning a lottery, a bonus

This trick is similar to Nigeria scam. Cheaters send emails to inform the victims that they won a lottery or a product of big value. The latest trick is World Cup 2010 lottery in South Africa. When the victims click the link in email, a website of the lottery company will appear. o­n the site are the portraits and addresses of other winners for reference. And to receive the bonus, the victims have to pay money for related formalities, worth from several thousands to tens of thousands USD. Many people in Vietnam are cheated by this trick.

Investment

This trick is simply using high interest rates to entice the victims to deposit their money like the recent case in Vietnam.