Colonel, Assoc.Prof.Dr. Nguyen Minh Duc, Director of the PPA’s Research Centre for Criminology and Criminal Investigation, instructor of research group said the work was a small branch theme in the research tendency of high-tech crime which has been caring out in the unique research centers on criminology nationwide. Through the survey, among all cases related to high-tech crimes (including the attacks on computer networks), two-third of them is to appropriate properties.

“Approximately 70% criminals of this crime are young people, mostly from 18 to 30 years old. The characteristics of this age group are high curiosity. When being knowledgeable about information technology, they have desire to conquer the challenge; the more difficult it is, the more they want to pass. Many people have been tempted and carried out network attacks without predicting all the consequences. Therefore, it is important to implement the educational policies on political awareness, sense of citizenship for the young people who are good at information technology so that they do not become high-tech criminals intentionally or even unintentionally” - Assoc.Prof. Duc stressed.

Sharing about the process of implementing the work, Tran Phuong Thao, fifth-year student of the PPA, leader the research group, still remembers the special contacts with the prisoners who have been sentenced to disposal of property through the Internet.

Thao said: “Among the prisoners we met, mostly at young age, some of them were students. Unlike those who committed murder with “hot” weapons with aggressive temperament, criminals who used the Internet to appropriate property are intellectual and educated subjects with deep understanding of the law and specialized knowledge in information technology. Actually, when meeting them, seeing their maturity in the use of modern media, we felt sorry that their understanding and wisdom must be used to make a better life, not to be the tool that they used to cheat the others and went to jail then.”

When meeting directly the criminals, studying the criminal records, the PPA’ students gathered numerous phishing tricks via the Internet. “In some cases, the criminals sent information to impersonate the Bank A, which was implementing a campaign to upgrade service, request customer to re-enter their information. After customer imported data successfully, this information would be stolen quickly to make the fake card for appropriating their fortune.

There were also a few cases of stealing email accounts or setting up fake emails, then posted to the people in the friend list of these stolen ones.  They mentioned "emergency" situations such as being abroad, stolen and should be transferred by their friends to buy air tickets to come back home... The amount of money of this type was not large, the Internet users in panic mood transferred in a rush, then startled to test their accounts, the money was gone.”

Every time we contacted with the criminals, found out the causes, tricks, methods and process of synthesis, analysis, assessing detailed data, which helped us to identify the criminological characteristics of the criminals who use the Internet to appropriate properties, find the effective preventive solutions and get the highest results” - Thao shared.

Translated by Quang Nghi