The ‘money back support’ scam flourished after the Onus collapse

Since the evening of March 20, users have had difficulty logging in to the Onus digital asset exchange. In the Onus communities in Vietnam, many people expressed worry and impatience because they were sending tens of millions, even hundreds of millions of dong on the platform.

Immediately after that, posts with instructions and calls to join the “account processing support” and “Update Onus information” channels also appeared. This content often includes a link or QR code leading to a Telegram group, Zalo or external website. Among them, there are groups calling for registration of “refund support”, asking for personal information, some other groups calling for investment, cryptocurrency trading or introducing registration to other platforms to receive commissions.

Sending more than 200 million VND to receive overnight interest on Onus, Quang Huy (Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi) said he received a number of invitations to join groups of this type. “Some stranger sent me a link and QR code, inviting me to register to get my money back. But when they asked for personal data, I was afraid of losing more money so I didn’t do it,” he said.

Ha Khanh (HCMC) also joined the Telegram group “supporting Onus users”. The content in the group is mainly unfounded information, interspersed with strange links. After being asked to transfer one million VND “service fee” in advance, she felt uneasy so she left the group.

According to Mr. Ngo Minh Hieu, founder of the Anti-Fraud project, this is a common trick when financial-related incidents occur. “Crooks often take advantage of users’ psychology of wanting to get their money back to gain access. They can impersonate lawyers, law firms or authorities to create trust,” he said.

According to experts, after gaining trust, the crooks can ask the victim to pay an amount of money in the form of a “service fee” or “processing fee”. When they receive money, they will cut off contact or continue to make other requests.

The Anti-Fraud Project advises users to be wary of “sure money back” promises, especially requests to transfer money in advance. Users should also limit providing personal information on platforms and websites of unknown origin.

Onus was founded by Vuong Le Vinh Nhan (Eric Vuong), a Vietnamese businessman, in 2020. Late last year, this person said that the floor had more than 7 million global users, had four international operating licenses and had the capacity to process about 300,000 transactions per second. In addition to Vietnam, the platform has many users in several markets such as Nigeria, India, Philippines and Indonesia.

Previously, Onus had a security incident in 2021, when the electronic authentication data of about two million users was sold online. The cause was determined to be related to the Log4Shell vulnerability. At that time, the platform representative confirmed that user assets were not affected and pledged to be ready to compensate if any damage arose due to system errors.