Cybercrime in Vietnam : Elon Musk’s shadow looms over a vast financial scam

A new kind of cyberattack is sweeping through Vietnam, where particularly ingenious scammers are exploiting the image of billionaire Elon Musk to trap thousands of citizens.

Many users have reported receiving private messages and social media notifications, supposedly signed by the head of Tesla and SpaceX, promising direct financial aid amounting to several thousand dollars under a purported tech charity program.

Behind these promises of easy money lies a sophisticated scheme using incredibly accurate deepfakes (AI-generated videos) and hacked verified accounts to lend credibility to the offer.

The modus operandi is ruthless: to « unlock » the transfer of funds, the victim is asked to click on a malicious link leading to a fake cryptocurrency platform or to provide their full bank details, allowing the hackers to empty the accounts in minutes.

This scam, deemed extremely dangerous by Hanoi authorities, particularly targets young people and novice investors drawn to the aura of the world’s richest man.

Given the scale of the phenomenon in April 2026, Vietnamese police are urging the public to be extremely vigilant, reminding them that no person of his stature distributes money via instant messaging and that sharing biometric or banking data on these platforms poses a major risk of identity theft.