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Less than 24 hours after opening an online account with Kiên Long Bank, a customer reported that 5 billion VND was withdrawn through a series of overnight transfers. The incident, which occurred in mid-December 2025, raised questions about irregularities related to login devices, biometric authentication, and transaction controls.
In an interview with Tiền Phong, Mr. N.S. in Hanoi said the incident occurred on December 12–13, 2025 at Kiên Long Bank. Around 13:20 on December 12, 2025, Mr. S. opened an online account via electronic identity verification (eKYC). About three hours later, he went to a teller to deposit 50 million VND and confirmed the account was operating normally.
That evening, he transferred an additional 5 billion VND from another bank into the Kiên Long Bank account for savings. However, at 1:19 a.m. on December 13, the account generated 11 transfers totaling 5 billion VND, including one transaction of 100 million VND and ten transfers of 490 million VND each.
When filing a complaint with the bank, Mr. S. said he received data indicating that at the moment of account opening, the system recorded two devices logging in with nearly identical timestamps, differing only by a fraction of a second.
Mr. S. argued this is virtually impossible in practice because eKYC requires simultaneous steps such as facial recognition and NFC scanning of the citizen ID—processes he said cannot be performed in parallel on two different devices.
The bank argued that the customer switched to a second device after opening the account. However, Mr. S. said the explanatory dossier did not show biometric verification when changing devices, which he noted is mandatory under current regulations from the State Bank of Vietnam.
Mr. S. also said that during the transaction-control stage, all large transfers occurred at night but no alerts were recorded for the account holder.
In addition, he said the biometric data provided by the bank did not match the time of the transactions and consisted only of static images from the account opening. He said this suggests there is no clear evidence that the account owner performed the transfers.
During the complaint process, the bank proposed offering the customer 500 million VND, roughly 10% of the amount reported lost. Mr. S. did not accept the proposal, and, according to the report, there is currently no concrete compensatory plan from the bank.
The State Bank of Vietnam said it had responded to the customer’s request and required Kiên Long Bank to review and handle the matter to protect legitimate rights and interests.
The central bank noted that the review and resolution of complaints are conducted based on the agreements set out in Circular 17/2024 and Circular 15/2024.
The regulator also stressed that if there are signs of crime, banks must proactively report to authorities, cooperate in investigations, and inform the customer—adding that suspected high-tech crime cases will not be resolved solely as civil disputes.
According to the State Bank of Vietnam, Kiên Long Bank has sent a letter to the Cyber Security and High Tech Crime Prevention Department PA05 of Hanoi Police to request verification. The case remains under investigation with no final conclusion.
In a statement to Tiền Phong, a Kiên Long Bank representative said the bank is coordinating with the customer to resolve the matter with the police.
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