Why Awareness Matters as Much as Security in Fighting Fraud

Recently, I read a report by the Vietnam National Cybersecurity Association that contained an encouraging message. After years of rising concern, 2025 was the first in many years when the number of victims of online fraud fell. So far 2026 also looks to maintain a positive trend, with the ratio of fraud cases among total criminal cases violating social public order continuing to decrease to 11% vs. 14% last year.

However, that optimism should be treated with caution, and there is no place for complacency. For the people who lose money, an improved statistic will be of little comfort. 

As I consider the role that banks play in protecting consumers, it is important to remember this human impact. Fraud is a personal crisis that often causes financial difficulties, significant stress, and long-term harm for victims and their families. I have had friends scammed in the past, and I still clearly remember their embarrassment and desperation as they struggled to see a way out.

The Shift to Authorised Payment Fraud

Unauthorised payment fraud is where the consumer does not authorise the payment. This can happen through hacking into their online banking account, the use of fraudulent identity documents, or social engineering to obtain credentials, for example, through phishing.

Banks have become better at preventing criminals from breaking into customers’ devices and then their banking accounts through multiple layers of technological development. Specific to Vietnam, the successful programme for biometric verification at onboarding and during large transactions reduces the chance for unauthorised use.

Now, the key battleground is authorised payment fraud. This is where we as customers are tricked into making a payment that is not what it seems. In that case, since the account holder is making the payment, authentication and system controls may have limited effect.

As we look at the growing sophistication of these scams, they may benefit from artificial intelligence and deepfakes to make them more believable. “Fraud as a Service” (FaaS) has been reported to commoditise fraud, reducing the technical barriers to entry for new fraudsters as they pick from a menu of established ‘fraud’ providers. With AI, fraudsters are increasingly able to specifically tailor believable scenarios to different victims.

There are many types of authorised payment fraud, but some examples include:

• Investment scam – the promise of a significant investment opportunity. Often these scams may provide initial investment ‘returns’ to encourage larger payments.
• Romance scam – the fraudster uses a fake dating profile or approach on social media, often leading to deep emotional manipulation.
• Extortion scam – blackmailing the victim with threats if they do not pay. A common typology targeting young people may request explicit photographs and then threaten the release to family or friends.
• Impersonation scam – pretending to be a family member or a senior colleague to request payment by text message or social media, increasingly supplemented by AI-generated voice or video.

Many of these scams may have similar features:

• They often begin with social engineering to gain the victim’s trust before moving to pressure or threats.
• They are often conducted remotely, potentially across borders.
• Any payment is unlikely to be the end of the scam, with larger amounts often requested over time.

To explore in more depth around what we are doing to help protect consumers from fraud, I decided to call in an expert. On a recent visit to Hanoi, I sat down with HSBC Vietnam’s Head of Financial Crime Compliance, Hien Nguyen, to discuss the issue. I asked Hien:

What are the top worries as we think about fraud?

She said the first is awareness: fraudsters exploit trust, urgency and emotion. Anybody can become vulnerable under pressure.

Even where warnings exist, people will still go ahead. We have seen situations where people make payments despite warnings from banks or law enforcement. The promise of a successful investment with high return, the emotional pull of a romance scam, or strong religious beliefs can often be enough for victims to not want to listen to warnings.

Secondly, while new technologies are bringing about many benefits, they are making fraud more efficient. The pace of development in artificial intelligence is allowing bad actors to create convincing websites, emails, or even video calls in a fraction of the time it would have taken in the past. Cryptocurrency may accelerate the movement of funds and can rapidly cross borders before it can be traced or stopped.

Touching upon the point of awareness, while recognizing fraud prevention is a shared responsibility, Hien and I brainstormed:

Four top tips for customers

The first is simple: slow down! Fraudsters often rely on speed, pressure, and ‘fear of missing out’. We exchanged notes on the UK’s “Take Five to Stop Fraud” scheme, which reminds consumers to stop and think for a moment before parting with money or information, and that criminals are likely to rush or panic you. If a bank, friend or family member is warning you that it may be a scam, pause to think if their advice could be correct.

Second, aim for responsible use of social media. Scammers may attempt targeted ‘spearphishing’ attacks using information from your social media. Review your privacy settings, avoid using the same password across multiple sites, limit the personal information you share publicly, and be cautious of friendly messages from strangers.

Thirdly, you should never feel alone. Often the pressure from fraud may drive us to act irrationally, but we are embarrassed or scared to reach out for help. We talked about the Vietnamese government’s “Not Alone” campaign in 2025. While that campaign was targeted at young people, the lessons are relevant to all of us. Where we may see someone using pressure or fear, we should reach out to trusted friends, family or law enforcement. At the same time, we should be open to others and listen without judgment.

Finally and importantly, please help us to share these tips with family and friends. Fraudsters may adapt techniques for different target victims, and some may exploit lower levels of digital confidence or awareness. While you may be aware of the risks, others may not. Your elderly or younger family members and friends may be especially vulnerable.

Hien and I felt that we should finish on a positive note and discussed:

Why do we remain optimistic about the future?

We both see reasons for optimism in technology and interbank coordination.

While AI certainly brings additional risks and fraud typologies, technology is also allowing banks to step up with improved investigations and fraud prevention. Systems can automatically analyse app usage to assess the risk of a transaction and detect anomalies. HSBC Vietnam recently launched a global intelligence system that takes advantage of over 110 million daily interactions to spot fraud trends.

A Dynamic Risk Assessment system was also launched by HSBC in Vietnam that has proven to identify financial crime activities significantly more effectively while also reducing manual effort by 60%, hence providing a more efficient service to customers and reducing the potential of fraud.

More widely, with the guidance of the Vietnamese regulators and government, financial institutions also continue to enhance data sharing and reporting of potential frauds, establishing direct communication channels for emergency response, as well as supporting tracing of fund flows.

The State Bank of Vietnam’s (SBV) Information System for Managing, Monitoring, and Preventing Fraud in Payment Activities (SIMO) has been deployed to 149 entities, including 99 credit institutions and 50 payment intermediary organisations. Beyond its role in centralising data, a key feature of the system is to directly alert customers when suspicious transactions occur. At the end of May 2026 according to the SBV, the system had flagged 1.3 million potentially risky transactions, and helped avoid VND4.5 trillion (USD177m) of transfers to potentially fraudulent accounts.

Apart from technological developments, I continue to be impressed by the individual commitment of officials in the State Bank of Vietnam (SBV) and Ministry of Public Security and the efforts to combat fraud that I hear about from peer banks. The SBV has fine-tuned their processes to fast-track suspicious transactions to law enforcement. The Ministry of Public Security in cooperation with the SBV has increased the frequency of sharing emerging risks, common red flags and typologies to improve banks’ capability in identifying and detecting suspicious activities.

Finally, we see positives in the skill sets and risk culture of our colleagues inside the bank thanks to a number of initiatives to boost staff awareness e.g. eye-catching internal communications on conduct and financial crime and training online and in-person. We initiated a “Compliance Month” initiative in Oct 2025, with 15 training sessions with average attendance over 150 at each session. This included a sharing session from a human trafficking charity to understand the real impact to victims, and the use of examples from movies to bring financial crime to life. After this, we saw more than a 30% increase in potential fraud escalations. When we meet our branch teams, we see a genuine desire to protect our customers and society as a whole. 

Overall, I am sure that we will continue to see challenges with the evolving fraud landscape. Nonetheless, I am confident that by working together as individuals, government and banks, we can continue to identify and stop fraud in the future.