Vietnam’s e-commerce in the first 3 quarters of 2024 reached a scale of nearly 230,000 billion VND, an increase of 38%. Our country has the leading online market growth in the region and the world.

These are impressive indicators showing that Vietnam has the fastest growing online market in the region and the world. However, any boom will come with downsides; impersonation, fraud , and scams are problems that have been and are happening. Therefore, the regulation that all organizations and individuals participating in e-commerce must be electronically identified in the Prime Minister’s Official Dispatch 119 is expected to overcome these problems.

According to data from the General Department of Market Management, Ministry of Industry and Trade, in the first 9 months of this year alone, this agency has handled more than 2,014 cases of violations and fraud with a total value of infringing goods of nearly 30 billion VND. According to the National Competition Commission, the rate of complaints related to e-commerce accounts for 9.4%, nearly double that of 2023. A very high rate but perhaps not enough when many e-commerce transactions are of small value and when there is a problem, many people choose to ignore it without complaining. There are also many people who think that it will be difficult to find the scammer, so when faced with the situation, they have to accept it.

Beware of impersonation scams in online shopping

As a regular online shopper, phone calls from delivery people, also known as shippers, are no longer strange to this young person. So when he received a call from a strange number claiming to be a shipper, stating the exact order information, and also saying that the goods would be delivered to the coffee shop opposite the company – where he often asked to receive the goods, this young person trusted and transferred 500,000 VND to this person to pay. But 30 minutes later, he received another call from a familiar shipper to deliver the goods. At this point, realizing he had been scammed was too late.

“The scammer told me very precisely all the information including the type of product I ordered, the order code and even the exact amount down to the odd number. So at the time I transferred the money, I was not at all vigilant,” said the victim.

More sophisticatedly, the scammers have time to “change clothes” to trap their victims with a more unpredictable scenario. They claim to be shippers, asking the victims to immediately transfer the shipping fee of only 30,000 VND – 40,000 VND. Not only that, many subjects are even willing to impersonate famous people, create channels, run ads to continue the chain of fraudulent and deceptive acts.

“Especially during sale days, these subjects use images and brands to run advertisements on newly created Facebook Fanpages, which greatly affects the reputation and image of Schannel as well as individuals,” said Mr. Nguyen Lac Huy, Schannel channel system manager, in charge of communications at CellphoneS.

Name yourself CellphoneS, Digibox, any business. Then you can wear an anonymous mask. Many people think that cyberspace is a place where they can freely do whatever tricks they want to make money.

According to Official Dispatch 119, the Prime Minister requested the Ministry of Public Security to take the lead in promoting the implementation of electronic authentication services for e-commerce platforms . Ensure that organizations, businesses and individuals are authenticated when participating in the provision and exchange of goods on e-commerce platforms, avoiding tax losses and fraudulent acts. These anonymous people will have to come to light.

Major Nguyen Tien Nam – Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security said: “When we verify those accounts, at least the police agency will be able to verify the real accounts behind those accounts are registered under the names of individuals, and it will be very effective in supporting the police agency in the process of investigating and verifying these accounts.”

According to experts, identity authentication will make the market more transparent, competition healthier and help sellers feel secure in investing and doing business while buyers are guaranteed their rights.

“The first is to protect the rights of both the seller and the buyer because when the identification is done strictly, the seller will feel more secure when delivering the goods to the buyer, and at the same time, the buyer will also know the origin of the goods and how their rights will be guaranteed,” said Mr. Hoang Tung, Founder of Pizza Home.

Ms. Mai Thi Thanh Oanh – Deputy General Director of Coc Coc platform said: “Accordingly, users will have to be more responsible, will avoid fake news, false news and limit scams on cyberspace”.

The question is whether identification on e-commerce is feasible? According to statistics from the Department of E-commerce and Digital Economy, Vietnam currently has more than 61 million users, meaning that 3 out of 5 people have participated in e-commerce transactions. To authenticate these 61 million people seems to require a lot of time and effort. But at the present time, technology can completely solve this problem soon.

Technology to solve the problem of e-commerce identification

In fact, nearly 100% of the population has been issued with a chip-based citizen identification card or personal identification number. Therefore, basic authentication is to synchronize accounts with this data. Payment and banking account establishment – which is closely related to e-commerce activities – has also been successfully implemented.

“I think in terms of technology, it is not a difficult problem because similar services have been implemented. The main thing here is that people are hesitant to provide information and transactions. Especially for some private services, some buyers and sellers may not want to provide information. Basically, in terms of technology, those identification tasks are not difficult,” said Mr. Nguyen Minh Duc – Cyber ​​Security Expert, Cyradar Joint Stock Company.

Mr. Nguyen Binh Minh – Member of Vietnam E-commerce Association said: “Our current technology platform has kept up with the development of e-commerce, helping to improve transaction activities to be safer and more trustworthy. Therefore, it will encourage people to trust e-commerce and continue shopping in our digital economy”.

The growth rate of e-commerce at the beginning of this year reached nearly 40% and has continuously maintained a double-digit growth rate for many years. According to Decree 147 of the Government, to communicate on social networks, users must identify themselves. You will have to clearly understand who you are and therefore be ready to take responsibility for all your actions on the internet. All transactions and purchases will reach a higher level of trust, the e-commerce market will therefore not only grow in quantity but will also have qualitative breakthroughs.