N.V.T, a Tra Vinh resident, never thought that a message congratulating him on winning valuable prizes from Zalo, the Vietnamese free text app he is using, would cost him VND4.5 million instead.

T. said he has repeatedly received messages from Zalo, an app provided by VNG Group, saying he has been selected to receive special prizes under a Zalo promotional event.

The prizes include a Liberty scooter and VND30 million, and all he has to do is to visit the website http://eventvang.com, he said.

“I was greeted by a congratulatory message when visiting the website, and was asked to pay VND100,000 via prepaid phone or game cards,” T. told Tuoi Tre.

After charging a VND100,000 card, T. was asked to call several people, who were introduced as VNG employees, and ended up being asked to pay a “supporting fee” of VND5 million to claim the prize, he recalled.

A man named Hoang later told him that he would have to pay only VND3.5 million as the company would cover 30 percent of the fee.

“I completed the payment and was asked to transfer another VND7 million, and it was when I knew I was being deceived,” he said.

Many smartphone users have received similar messages sent over the free-messaging apps like Zalo, Viber, or Wala, saying they have been selected as winners of valuable prices, and all they have to do is transfer a fee to claim their winnings.

When following the instruction of these mysterious senders, users ended up losing their money while and never receiving any prizes.

Most of the victims are users of Zalo and other online games operated by VNG.

VNG customer care service said they received as many as 689 complaints from users in August, who said they were duped into losing money to the scam messages sent via Zalo.

The total financial damages of these victims is estimated at VND100 million.

The deceived users said there are as many as 60 websites that can “steal” their money under the guise of a place for claiming prizes.

Doan Do Ngoc Thi, chief of public relations at VNG, asserted that Zalo did not launch any promotional campaigns that award users with a Liberty motorbike and VND30 million cash.

VNG has repeatedly updated the list of scam websites to prevent users from falling victims to the scammers.

Similarly, Nguyen Thanh Hoa, CEO fo Wala Co, which operates the Wala app, said his company also applied several technical barriers to curb the scams, but admitted that “we cannot completely remove them.”