3 impersonators of police and telecommunications employees defrauded nearly 3.3 billion VND and received sentences

On November 29 and 30, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a first-instance criminal trial to try defendants Pham Dinh Luan (born 1993), Nguyen Huu Thu (born 1991) and Pham Dinh Phi (born 1999), all residing in Huong My commune, Luong Tai district, Bac Ninh province, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Defendants Luan, Thu, and Phi at the trial. Photo: Tran Vu

According to the indictment, in early August 2018, Luan received a phone call from Nguyen Van Phi (born in 1990, residing in Luc Nam district, Bac Giang, cousin of Luan's wife). Phi asked Luan to find someone to open bank accounts and ATM cards, promising to pay 3 million VND for each card.

Pham Dinh Luan found Nguyen Huu Thu and Pham Dinh Phi, asking them to open a total of 15 bank accounts and get 15 ATM cards. Then, Luan asked someone to send them to Taiwan for Nguyen Van Phi.

Pham Dinh Luan also discussed with Nguyen Huu Thu and Pham Dinh Phi to make fake ID cards and continue to create bank cards and then sell them to Nguyen Van Phi to avoid detection by authorities.

Then, from Taiwan, Nguyen Van Phi called Pham Dinh Luan, Pham Dinh Phi, and Nguyen Huu Thu to agree that when the victims' money was transferred to their accounts, they would withdraw the cash. Nguyen Van Phi promised to give Luan, Thu, and Phi 20% of the total amount of money embezzled.

Within 8 days from August 21 to August 29, the subjects committed 5 acts of appropriation from victims in many different provinces and cities. The total amount of money that the subjects illegally profited was nearly 3.3 billion VND.

Of which, 218 million VND was appropriated from Mr. Nguyen Tien D., 200 million VND from Mr. Nguyen Van D. (Nghe An), 169 million VND from Ms. Hoang Thi Phong L. (Nghe An), 256 million VND from Ms. Phan Khanh C. (Nghe An) and more than 2.4 billion VND from Ms. Bui Thi Hong T. (Khanh Hoa).

In court, the defendants admitted to the crimes as stated in the indictment. The method used by the subjects was to impersonate telecommunications employees and notify them of unpaid bills. Although the victims tried to explain, the subjects were informed that the case would be transferred to the police for investigation.

Soon after, their phones received calls ending in 113. The callers claimed to be police officers investigating cases of money laundering, drug trafficking, and child trafficking, which were suspected to involve money in the victims' bank accounts. The suspects then asked the victims to secretly transfer money to assist in the investigation.

The subjects confessed to acting on orders from Nguyen Van Phi. After each transaction, Phi deducted a percentage of the defendants' commission, and the remaining amount went into Nguyen Van Phi's pocket.

However, because this subject is currently abroad, the authorities have not yet arrested him, so the subjects Luan, Thu, and Phi must be jointly responsible for the damage caused to the victims.

At the trial, the victims could not explain why they could obediently follow the unreasonable requests of strangers they had never met. Some victims, even though they had no cash, were willing to sell their gold to transfer money to people they had never met. Only after the transaction was completed did they discover they had been scammed when the other end of the line could not be reached.

After a lengthy deliberation, on the morning of November 30, the panel of judges announced the verdict. Based on the overall case, the panel sentenced Pham Dinh Luan to 15 years in prison, Nguyen Huu Thu to 14 years in prison, and Pham Dinh Phi to 8 years in prison. The defendants must jointly compensate the victims for the amount of money they defrauded and appropriated.