6 Nghe An women report being scammed out of billions by foreign “lovers” via Facebook

Husband reported to the police, wife still firmly believed "boyfriend"foreign

Reporting to the police, Mr. TVT, residing in Vinh City (Nghe An), said that his wife, NTQ, worked as a tailor and that his family had a fairly stable life with an average income. In early 2018, his wife, Ms. Q, became acquainted with a foreign boyfriend named Anthony on Facebook and began chatting regularly. When looking at the pictures the subject shared on his personal page, Ms. Q was quite confident that her friend had a stable job and a comfortable life.

Knowing that Ms. Q's situation was still difficult because her husband did not have a stable job and her sewing job had an unstable income, Anthony expressed his sympathy and promised to send money to support her family. The money and gifts were sent via international airmail.

However, Anthony said that although she sent money in the package, she did not declare it for fear of being taxed, so in order to receive the goods, Ms. Q had to pay fees to "airport security". After Ms. Q's husband found out about the incident, he stopped his wife and reported it to Vinh City Police.

A text message from Anthony to Ms. Q. Photo: Provided by the victim

Upon receiving Mr. T.VT’s report, Vinh City Police immediately contacted Ms. Q directly and warned her to be vigilant against the above scam. However, because she trusted her friend Anthony too much, Ms. Q secretly borrowed money to transfer to the subject. As of December 25, Ms. Q had deposited over 300 million VND into an account claiming to belong to “Airport Security”.

After a long time of transferring money without receiving any gifts, Ms. Q changed her attitude to "threatening" and sent many threatening messages to the scammers above, but the result was only silence.

Depressionbecause of foreign "lover"

According to statistics from the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team, Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police, from August to December 2018, the whole province had 6 more cases of fraud, appropriating over 5 billion VND.

Specifically, in Nghi Phu commune (Vinh city), there was 1 case of being scammed of 800 million VND; Yen Thanh district had 2 cases of being scammed of a total of 1.2 billion VND; Con Cuong district had 1 case of being scammed of 350 million VND; Nghia Dan district had 1 case of being scammed of more than 2 billion VND and the case mentioned above.

Scammers often send pictures of packages and invoices to gain the trust of victims. Photo: Provided by the victim.

According to Mr. Ha Huy Duc - Captain of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team, Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police, many women come to report but still hope to receive gifts and are still wondering whether they are really being cheated or not. The reason is because they believe too much in the feelings of the "fake husbands" who have been texting them for a long time.

Specifically, Ms. LT H, residing in Yen Thanh district, “fell in love” with an Australian man online. This man claimed to be a teacher, still single, and appeared to be a polite and decent person. After a long time of getting to know each other, the man confided that he loved Ms. H and Vietnam very much. In a few years, he would come to Vietnam to buy a house and land to enjoy life with Ms. H.

Every year, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police receives hundreds of reports of online fraud and money appropriation, amounting to tens of billions of dong. Photo: Thanh Quynh

When she discovered that she had been cheated out of love and money up to 750 million VND, Ms. H was extremely miserable and suffered from depression. Now, when Ms. H tries to access her "lover's" personal page, Facebook informs her that the page you are looking for does not exist.

The police investigation force said that most of the victims who have transferred money cannot get it back because the scammers are abroad and have many sophisticated tricks. Therefore, everyone needs to be highly vigilant when connecting and exchanging via social networks.