A warning about impostor on Facebook

Facebook impostors are becoming a more widespread issue on Facebook

A survey of the Vietnam Programme for Internet & Society (VPIS) – University of Social Sciences and Humanities, Vietnam National University Hanoi, showed that 78 per cent of social network users affirmed that they either used to be victims or read posts inciting hatred on their social networks.

The victims are most often policymakers, artists, as well as businessmen and women. Impostors issue wrong and fabricated statements about these people to besmirch them in the public eye and extort money from them.

Most recently, Tran Bao Toan, a Swiss overseas person and the director of Pavo Capital Asset Management fell victim to such an incident.

A fake Facebook account claiming to be Tran Bao Toan

Tran Bao Toan is a financial and international investment expert. He graduated as a master of marketing and doctor of banking management in Switzerland.

After numerous years of working for banks across Europe, in 2004 Toan decided to return to Vietnam to work as the mentor of the Swiss government in the programme of helping Vietnam restructure its banking sector.

During the programme, Toan worked with the State Bank of Vietnam, the Ministry of Finance, Vietcombank, and BIDV as well as organised training courses lead by Swiss experts for the staff of these financial institutions.

At the time, he invited numerous famous foreign speakers to introduce modern financial management models from other countries to Vietnam.

Then, in September 2005, he and his family relocated to Vietnam and decided to co-operate with his partners to establish Vietnam Holding Fund, which implemented numerous M&A deals and professional asset programmes since 2006.

In 2012, Toan invested in private companies and startups. Nguyen Duc Xe, a member of the Board of Directors of My Lan Group affirmed that Toan made great contributions to the company's success in the financial sector and provided valuable advice for the company’s development strategy.

Another fake account pretending to be Toan

However, most recently, an impostor not only began masquerading as Toan, but also took advantage of his/her relationship with famous Facebookers to spread the false information created to pressure Toan and his family. The situation reached the point where Toan was worried for his and his family's safety. Besides, he received messages demanding money to remove or delete the false information.

In order to prevent similar conduct, Vietnam should issue strict regulations on online behaviour.