Lost 9 Billion VND Due to Trusting 'Online Boyfriend' to Invest in Virtual Currency

On April 2nd, the Hanoi Police announced that they had just received a report from a victim residing in Ha Dong district. She stated that she made friends and chatted with a man online. After a period of developing feelings, her boyfriend guided her in cryptocurrency investment. Initially, she invested a small amount of money and saw profits, so she decided to go “all in.” As of March 25, the interest amount on the system rose to 19 billion VND, but she could not withdraw it. The system required her to pay an additional 5% of the total current amount, corresponding to about one billion VND, in order to be able to withdraw. At this point, she realized she had been scammed. The total amount scammed was about 9 billion VND. According to the Hanoi Police, authorities have recently warned about the emergence of cryptocurrency exchanges that attract participants for investment, posing a potential risk of fraud. The exchanges are introduced as projects with high interest rates, promising returns, and high bonuses to lure new investors. To prevent, the police recommend that people remain vigilant when participating in online dating applications and friend requests from strangers on social media. When seeing platforms advertising, promising high profits or attractive investment opportunities, one should be cautious as these could very well be scams. Furthermore, cryptocurrency exchanges currently do not have legal representatives in Vietnam, and cryptocurrency has not yet been recognized by Vietnamese law.