5 days of searching for the group that appropriated 500 billion VND
A group of suspects led by foreigners faked calls originating from the Ministry of Public Security's hotline to trick victims into transferring money, estimated to have appropriated 500 billion VND.
On January 8, reporting to the Criminal Police Department (Quang Nam Provincial Police), Ms. Tinh (38 years old, Tam Ky city) said that she received a call from a woman claiming to be a post office employee named Lan, informing her that she had a debt collection note of nearly 37 million VND transferred by a bank. If she did not pay, the police would freeze her account for investigation.
When Tinh said he didn't owe anyone money, Lan immediately suggested contacting the police for guidance.
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Evidence of the case was temporarily seized. Photo:Dac Thanh |
Next, Ms. Tinh received a call from the phone number 0692.34xxx from the person who introduced her as working at the Ministry of Public Security, wanting to summon her to investigate the debt related to the disclosure of personal information. After checking online, she saw that the phone number was indeed the hotline of the Ministry of Public Security, so she trusted it.
Following this person's instructions, Ms. Tinh created a bank account, registered for Internet Banking and used her own phone number as the OTP code to deposit money. She was asked to perform some Internet Banking setup steps using the above phone number from the Ministry of Public Security for the reason of "information security".
After completing the request, Ms. Tinh paid nearly 100 million VND. However, a few days later, she checked and found that the money had disappeared, because the messages for withdrawal and transfer were registered to the above phone number, so she did not know. Knowing that she had been scammed, she reported it to the police.
Quang Nam police said at the same time, some people also reported losing money using similar tricks.
Lieutenant Colonel Ngo Quoc Anh (Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department, Quang Nam Provincial Police) said that the group of property appropriation was led by foreigners. Accordingly, in 2018, Long Boon Leng (29 years old) and Lim Kean Kew (24 years old, both Malaysian nationals) were instructed by the Taiwanese group to enter Vietnam to connect with 8 accomplices to obtain personal account information of many local people. With the obtained data, the group in Taiwan would use a VoIP switchboard impersonating the hotline number of the Ministry of Public Security to carry out the scam.
They impersonate the police investigation agency and the prosecutor's office to notify victims of debt payments via bank cards or are involved in particularly serious cases... Step by step, forcing the victims to follow instructions, they take over online bank accounts and then hand them over to 10 people in Vietnam to withdraw money.
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| Suspect Long Boon Leng at the police station. Photo:XM |
Although the server system was located outside the country, the police later found clues. On the occasion of Tet, dozens of detectives went to the southern provinces to arrest the perpetrators. On January 13, the task force arrested 10 people at many locations.
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| 10 people were arrested. Photo:Dac Thanh |
"Based on the number of bank cards seized, it is estimated that this group has appropriated more than 500 billion VND from victims nationwide. We have blocked and frozen 55 bank accounts with a total amount of 3.7 billion VND," Colonel Anh informed.
Colonel Nguyen Duc Dung (Director of Quang Nam Provincial Police) said that the criminal police force had studied and mastered the modus operandi, so when they discovered it, they promptly fought to prevent it with the coordination of the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention. Long Boon Leng (29 years old) and Lim Kean Kew (24 years old, both Malaysian nationals) and 8 accomplices are being detained.
Quang Nam police asked the victims to provide more information so that the investigation agency has more grounds to handle the behavior of the above group of suspects.
* Victim's name has been changed
