VietNamNet Bridge - Vietnamese clients of HSBC and BIDV have lost tens of millions of dong after having their international payment accounts hacked. 

The hackers used the accounts to pay for advertisements on Facebook. 

Vu Hoang Nam in Hanoi has told ICTnews that he lost VND32 million on May 5 this way. 

A person using Nam’s international payment card issued by BIDV (the Bank for Investment and Development of Vietnam) to pay for ads on a page relating to watches and room booking with Agoda on Facebook.

Soon after discovering the problem, Nam reported to BIDV to block his payment card. He is waiting for a reply from the bank.

Vietnamese clients of HSBC and BIDV have lost tens of millions of dong after having their international payment accounts hacked.

Nam said he could not find out how his account was hacked, and did not know how to report the problem to Facebook.

Nguyen Huyen Tram, the owner of a beauty shop in Hanoi, said she nearly became the victim of the account hack. However, the hacked account had been blocked before he tried to use the account.

Cao Thi Huong in Tan Binh district, HCM City, was shocked when HSBC informed her that her Visa account was used four times to make international payment for transactions relating to Facebook. The transactions were made from 8 am to 6.30 am on May 11.

Huong said that she did not make any transactions with Facebook during that time.

Huong, who was bewildered because of the information, decided to check all the pages embedded with the international payment account, including the fanpage management, and discovered the signs of a strange page related to watches.

Huong found that her account embedded on Facebook paid VND18.2 million for the ads. 

Besides, there were other accounts with Vietnamese names on the strange page. When Huong contacted the Vietnamese names, she was told that the Vietnamese names were also victims.

Huong reported the case to Facebook, and it replied in English which Huong forwarded to ICTnews, Facebook said Huong’s account was hacked and asked Huong to wait 3-5 days for the refund.

Huong also said that she had a meeting with HSBC branch at No 235 Dong Khoi street in HCM City. Her account at HSBC has been locked.

Huong, after sharing her story about the incident on Facebook, has received replies from many of her friends who also complained that they have lost money in their accounts.

The victims are still waiting for the problems to be clarified.

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