Published December 10, 2025
Read Time Mins
Vietnam is experiencing an unprecedented proliferation in scam calling, online fraud and SMS phishing. Although a major problem for telecom operators globally, it’s rise in Vietnam has been rapid due to the significant growth in smartphone and internet adoption. In 2024, online fraud caused over $744 million in damages, with losses estimated in the billions of dollars annually. Between 2022 and 2024, Vietnam saw a 70% increase in reported scam cases while the online population grew 14%.
Scammers often target the elderly, students and people of low income who may lack sufficient digital literacy. This creates several problems for telecom operators, including reputational damage, higher churn rates and loss of trust from their customers. But also people’s confidence in the growing digital society. Common scam tactics are impersonating officials like police or utility workers, tricking users into downloading malware through email, chat or social media. Phishing, identity theft and fake charity appeals and fake investments, like crypto scams are also common via social media.
These scams are increasingly being conducted by fraud syndicates or scam centres, often operated outside of Vietnam.
Viettel’s brand promise is being a ‘caring innovator for a better life of Vietnam’. They also want to bring digital technology to all aspects of social life, to serve people and create a digital society in Vietnam. These are at the heart of their determination to deal with this huge cybersecurity threat targeting their citizens.
Viettel were keen to collaborate with BlackDice as a technology partner because of their flexible, agile and innovative approach. Paul Hague, Founder and CEO understood early on an out of the box solution was not sufficient and they could create something unique for the Vietnam market.
BlackDice and Viettel worked closely on developing the scope for an ambitions ‘super app’ that could combat online scams. They had a shared mission to protect millions of people and create a secure digital society.
As the largest operator in Vietnam with a significant presence across South-East Asia, the project has the potential to tackle the most urgent digital threat in the region.
Following the detailed scoping and phase of development, BlackDice provided Viettel an SDK (Software Development Kit), a key differentiator from the standard solutions in the market. That delivered Viettel’s team speed and agility and an innovative set of cybersecurity features to plug into their super app.
Paul Hague, Founder and CEO, BlackDice said, “Viettel’s ambition forced us to innovate fast. Some things were technically impossible, and we had to be honest about that; but the end result is a set of features that genuinely protect people. This is cybersecurity with real-world impact.”
To combat the big issues of online fraud, scam calls and texts, device integrity and user safety to provide customer confidence, BlackDice’s solution included:
The partnership with Viettel enabled BlackDice to further develop their mobile solution BlackDice Angel at a faster pace than their original roadmap. The innovation work helped the cybersecurity company create an enterprise-grade level of protection against the most damaging cyberattacks that are impacting consumers and SMBs alike. BlackDice Angel part of their wider AI-powered cybersecurity platform BlackDice Halo.
The benefits for telcos are a protected and confident customer-base who see them as the provider who are safeguarding their digital lives, which drives greater loyalty, reduced churn and potential ARPU uplift.