Increasingly sophisticated forms of fraud
On January 29, the National Cyber Security Association coordinated with TikTok Vietnam to organize a seminar with the theme "Happy Tet safely - don't worry about deepfaking" - an event within the framework of the "Online Fraud Prevention 2025" campaign.
According to Mr. Vu Duy Hien - Deputy Secretary General cum Chief of Office of the National Cyber Security Association, the research report and survey on cybersecurity in 2025 in the personal user area conducted by the National Cyber Security Association shows that the number of victims of online fraud in 2025 has decreased significantly compared to 2024. Specifically, about 1 in 555 people are victims of fraud, equivalent to 0.18%, while in 2024 it was 0.45%. This is a positive sign, reflecting the common efforts of functional agencies, technology businesses, professional social organizations and the press in raising community awareness.
However, it is noteworthy that forms of fraud have not disappeared, but are shifting to more sophisticated methods, in which the highlight is the use of deepfake technology to impersonate images, voices and identities, causing great difficulties for users in identifying real and fake.
Faced with that reality, the National Cyber Security Association has issued some important warnings for users when participating in transactions, shopping and interacting in cyberspace, especially during the peak of the Lunar New Year.
First, images, voices and videos are no longer a reliable basis for verifying identity. Users need to be especially careful with requests for money transfers, transaction confirmation or personal information provided through calls, messages or videos, even if these requests are made in the name of acquaintances, leaders, organizations or familiar platforms.
Second, deepfake is often accompanied by a time-pressure scenario, to force users to make quick decisions and skip the necessary verification steps. Stopping to verify information through many official channels, or contacting relevant units directly, is a key factor to minimize risks.
Third, protecting personal data is of particular importance, because deepfake only really works when nurtured by real data. Arbitrarily sharing images, voices and personal information on social networks or platforms of unknown origin can inadvertently create conditions for sophisticated counterfeiting.
Fourth, all financial transactions need to be carried out through the official channel of the platform and payment unit. Users need to minimize money transfers according to separate instructions, outside the system, or through links of unknown origin; and proactively stop transactions and contact banks, platforms, or functional agencies when detecting unusual signs.
The most serious challenge of the AI era
According to expert Vu Duy Hung - Hung AI Creative, deepfake is becoming one of the most serious challenges of the artificial intelligence era, as the boundary between real and fake is increasingly blurred. From images, voices to videos, current AI tools allow creating fake content with high authenticity, easy access and difficult to distinguish with the naked eye.
In the first quarter of 2025 alone, the total global damage from deepfake fraud amounted to 200 million USD, with the frequency of attacks occurring every 5 minutes. "It can be said that we are facing sophisticated forms of attack that go far beyond normal recognition capabilities" - Mr. Hung said.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Tran Thanh Nam, Vice Rector of the University of Education, Vietnam National University, Hanoi, expert of the Vietnam - France Psychology Institute, speed and fomo syndrome (fear of missing opportunities) make people lack emotional control, lack risk consideration.
According to Assoc. Prof. Dr. Nam, to minimize fraud cases, it is necessary to improve information technology capacity for people. In addition, people can install anti-fraud software in cyberspace such as nTrust - anti-fraud software developed and operated by the National Cyber Security Association.
Everyone must turn self-protection operations in cyberspace into an automatic response," the expert said.
