Banking fraud trends in Vietnam

Authorities in Vietnam have issued warnings regarding evolving fraudulent tactics targeting banking customers.

Initially, Military Commercial Joint Stock Bank (MB) reported a ‘chip swapping’ scheme. In this method, criminals detach EMV security chips from authentic credit cards and attach them to different card bodies to facilitate unauthorized transactions. Fraudsters may use techniques such as interfering with cards during unattended POS payments, impersonating bank employees to request physical cards for ‘upgrades’, or exploiting unauthorized cash withdrawal services.

Subsequently, police in Dong Thap province identified a different high-tech method involving the hijacking of mobile cameras to bypass biometric authentication. By targeting compromised devices—specifically those that are jailbroken, rooted, or infected with malware—criminals use software to intercept facial recognition steps. The malware injects pre-recorded facial data into the banking app to trick the system into authorizing fraudulent transfers.