Strictly handling acts of buying, selling and stealing the personal data

​Buying and selling the personal data is done easily via the social networks, which is difficult to be handled 

The purchase and sale of data revolves around the personal information such as names, addresses, phone numbers and relationships of each individual, etc. This has a significant impact on each person and can lead to high-tech fraud and other illegal acts.

The information data is bought and sold easily

Understanding the needs of many businesses that want to buy customers' personal data to directly advertise and market their products, many people have publicly collected and sold the personal data on the internet.

Just going to the social networks (Facebook, Zalo) types: "the list of customer", after 0.7 seconds, 290 million results have been obtained with a series of addresses for sale of the customers list appearing such as lists of potential customers, lists of service companies, lists of directors of companies, lists of teachers, people with small children, etc. Thereby, it shows that the sale and purchase of personal information is very easy and fast. Depending on the fee paid, the different customer details will be provided.

Facing this situation, the Department of Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention of the Ministry of Public Security has continuously intervened and dismantled many cases of illegally appropriating and using the personal information.

Typically, in mid-May 2021, the Investigation Police Agency of the Ministry of Public Security prosecuted Lai Thi Phuong (29 years old, Director of VNIT TECH Company, living in Hanoi City) and Du Anh Quy (33 years old, Phuong's husband) on the act of illegally giving or using information on computer networks, telecommunications networks. These 2 defendants organized a line to illegally appropriate, buy, sell and use nearly 1.3 thousand GB (Gigabyte) of data, containing billions of information about the individuals and organizations across the country.

In Dong Nai Province, there are also many people who have trouble with this issue and become victims of scams to appropriate property. Recently, Mrs. N.T.H. (living in Trang Dai Ward, Bien Hoa City) has been called by a suspect claiming to be a police officer and then, asked her to transfer all assets of more than VND200 million to the object’s account for inspection in involvement in the illegal sale and purchase of narcotics.

Mrs. H. was initially skeptical, but because the suspect correctly read all of her personal information such as her name, identity card number, workplace and especially the exact amount in her personal account, it caused Mrs. H. is really scared. As a result, Ms. H. agreed to transfer money to this suspect to prove her goodwill in cooperating to solve the case and was "trapped", losing all the transferred money.

Similarly, on August 25, Mr. M.T.T. (living in Trang Bom District) was texted by a suspect via his Facebook account to ask for paying a debt of VND29 million. After making a call impersonating as the authorized forces, this object also sent all personal information of Mr. T. such as his workplace, position and monthly salary. The object also sent a photo of Mr. T.'s identity card to verify the debt.

Mr. T. said that he had never provided his personal information to any strange object. His personal information may have been stolen by the objects when he has carried out the procedures related to the personal declarations such as bank loans, mailing or registering a phone number, etc.

The acts should be immediately stopped

An officer of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team (Criminal Police Department of the Provincial Public Security) said that currently, the situation of personal data being appropriated, bought and sold is quite common and in most fields. The personal and organizational informations are often bought and sold, appropriated such as full name, date of birth, identity card number, address, workplace, position or including monthly salary, etc.

With the personal information data packages, the companies and businesses will be able to advertise and market to the right customers whom they need to serve. At the same time, from the detailed personal information, many suspects have easily trapped and deceived the users whose information is revealed with a very high probability of success through tricks of impersonating the power companies, network operators, banks, procuratorate, police forces, etc.

According to this officer, in addition to the sophistication in the illegal activities of the objects, the leakage and disclosure of the personal information is also due to the lax management of some agencies, enterprises and organizations in the information management, customers data. More serious issues are the situation that the businesses and organizations have colluded with the suspects or directly exploited and used the customer data in order to provide the third parties. Meanwhile, the investigation and handling is very difficult because it takes place in the social network space.

According to the Lawyer Vu Van Tang, the Lawyers Association Dong Nai Province, the act of illegally collecting, buying, selling, exchanging, giving and using the personal information and data is a violation of the law and should be strictly handled. Depending on the severity of the violation, there are different handling directions from the administrative sanctions to the criminal penalties.

Specifically, in some mild cases, the violators will be administratively sanctioned according to Article 46 of the Decree No. 98/2020/NĐ-CP dated August 26, 2020 on prescribing the penalties for administrative violations against regulations on commerce, production and trade in counterfeit and prohibited goods, and protection of consumer rights or in accordance with Article 102 of the Decree 15/2020/NĐ-CP dated February 3, 2020 on prescribing the penalties for administrative violations against regulations on postal services, telecommunications, radio frequencies, information technology and electronic transactions with the amount from VND02 - 70 million.

A person will be faced a penalty of up to 07 years' imprisonment in case of buying, selling, exchanging, giving, repairing, changing or publicizing the lawful private information of agencies, organizations or individuals on computer networks or telecommunications networks without the consent of the owner. At the same time, they will be fined from VND20 - 200 million and prohibited from holding the certain positions or doing certain jobs for 01 - 05 years.

Nhat Minh