2 brothers sold phone tapping software to more than 200 people

On April 13, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency announced that they had coordinated to arrest two subjects, Le Dinh Sang (37 years old, residing in Team 11, Ta Thanh Oai Commune, Thanh Tri District, Hanoi) and Nguyen Anh Dung (25 years old, residing in Team 10), residing in the same commune.

Previously, through the work of grasping the situation, the Office of the Criminal Police Department (Department C44) in coordination with the officers of the Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention discovered that the above group of subjects were selling phone tracking software, so they opened a case to fight.

At exactly 6:00 a.m. on April 11, reconnaissance teams simultaneously deployed to execute arrest warrants and urgently search two subjects, Le Dinh Sang and Nguyen Anh Dung.

The investigation agency seized computers, phones, papers and documents related to the crimes of the two subjects. Exploiting the phones and computers of Dung and Sang, the authorities discovered full evidence of the transaction of buying and selling eavesdropping software.

Two subjects Dung and Sang.

Initially, the Ministry of Public Security's Investigation Police Agency clarified that from 2014 to present, Sang and Dung have been selling software to monitor, eavesdrop and steal other people's phone data (called spyware) on the internet at the website: skyphonevn.com. The above website is managed by Le Dinh Sang, Nguyen Anh Dung is the name of the website's hosting and domain name registration.

In addition, the two subjects also used email, phone, and Facebook to contact and post advertisements selling spyware, instructing customers to install and secretly view information and documents stolen from victims.

When customers need to buy software, Sang and Dung will provide a bank account, ask customers to pay, then guide customers to visit their website to see the installation instructions. For customers who do not know how to use the web, they will guide them through the installation steps over the phone.

With Android operating system, customers have to pay 2.5 million for 3-month package; 4 million for 6-month package and 6 million for 12-month package. For IOS operating system, customers have to pay less including 2 million/3 months; 3.5 million/6 months. However, from Iphone 5 and above, customers have to pay 10 million/1-year package.

Initially, the authorities determined that the two subjects had sold software to more than 200 people, earning hundreds of millions of dong.

It is known that Dung and Sang are cousins. Dung graduated from university, is good at English and IT, so he went to foreign websites, ordered software from abroad, then built his own website to promote, sell the software and instruct customers on how to install it.

Currently, the Investigation Agency has summoned a number of people who bought software from Sang and Dung to work. Among them, most are wives or husbands who suspect their partner of having an affair, so they secretly installed software to eavesdrop and collect information. In one case, an employee installed software on his boss to "grasp" all information about him.

When the investigation agency invited him to work, the victim was very surprised to learn that his phone had been installed with spyware. In the case of the employee who installed spyware on his boss's phone, after 1 month, he was afraid of being exposed and knew that his actions were against the law, so he stopped himself and did not dare to access the information anymore.

In more than 200 cases of software purchases, it is not excluded that competitors have secretly installed software to collect information and documents, with the aim of destroying and harming competitors.

Captain Mai Van Phu - Deputy Head of Division 6, Department C44 said that the "spy" software sold by Sang and Dung runs in the background of the phone so the person who installed it cannot detect it. The only way to "feel" that there is illegally installed software on your phone is that the phone's battery drains quickly even though it is not used much.

The investigation agency also recommends that, from the cases of installing spyware and eavesdropping, people should not lend or let others use their phones, because in just a few minutes, your phone could become someone else's target./.