Two Vietnamese ATM cardholders saw a large amount of money in separate accounts mysteriously disappear last month, in a case industry insiders believe to be fraud.

The victim, T., and his wife notified Tuoi Tre (Youth) newspaper of the VND200 million (US$8,929) loss to their accounts without knowledge of the cause.

T. is a DongA Bank cardholder, whereas the wife uses an HDBank card. They both receive salaries via those accounts.

T. had VND74 million ($3,304) in his account, and his wife, VND120 million ($5,357), prior to the transfer of their July wages, they said.

However, when the couple went to withdraw their July salaries, they were shocked to see that both accounts had been emptied, the two recounted.

T. asserted that he had not made any transactions since last checking his balances.

He added that the withdrawal limit for each account was only VND20 million ($890) a day, which meant that the money had to be withdrawn over many days.

A representative from DongA Bank claimed that the lender had checked the bank account after the owner filed a complaint and found nine unknown transactions on it.

A representative from HDBank also found abnormal transactions on the ATM account belonging to the wife.

Both DongA Bank and HDBank, suspecting a case of ATM card fraud, have transferred relevant information about it to police officers for inspection.

The owners did not use the SMS notification service, a function recommended by experts to prevent fraud.

The SMS alert service informs account owners of their balances whenever a new transaction is carried out, allowing customers to minimize damage when a fraud occurs.Like us on Facebook or follow us on Twitter to get the latest news about Vietnam!