Arresting a group of people pretending to be bank employees to commit online fraud

The Investigation Police Agency of Rach Gia City Police (Kien Giang province) has prosecuted and issued an arrest warrant for Ho Minh Phuc (29 years old, residing in Ben Tre province) for the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts ofappropriation of property".

Previously, on March 7, three other subjects were also arrested for the above crime, including: Nguyen Thong Thai (29 years old), Duong Van Tai (24 years old) and Truong Han Chuong (24 years old, all residing in Ho Chi Minh City).

According to the investigation results, around July 2023, Thai, Tai and Chuong got to know each other while working at a financial services company (specializing in providing services for credit card users to receive cash).

During the working process, Thai and Tai were provided with files listing personal information of credit card users of a bank and stored them on their personal phones.

After quitting their jobs, Thai and Tai discussed and persuaded Chuong to commit the act of appropriating the assets of credit card users. The method of the subjects was to pretend to be bank employees, call the cardholders and provide false information beneficial to the cardholders to trick them into providing information about the credit card they were using. From there, they used the information to order high-value goods for the purpose of appropriation.

Thai then went online to buy more customer data, prepared two mobile phones, bought a junk SIM card and went to the room previously rented by Chuong to commit the act of appropriating property.

Based on the existing customer data, Tai used a phone with a junk SIM card to call each cardholder, pretending to be a bank employee to advise the cardholder on support for raising the credit limit to a higher level.

Upon receiving trust and consent, Tai asked the cardholder to provide the card number, security code, card expiration date and instructed that upon receiving the OTP code from the bank, it must be provided to Tai immediately.

After obtaining the information, Thai accessed online shopping sites to order and pay for high-value goods such as iPhones, watches, etc.

As soon as the seller confirmed the successful payment of the order, Chuong and Tai went to pick up the goods at the given address and sold them for money. With the above tricks, the subjects were able to appropriate assets of great value.

According to the police, for example, at around 11:00 a.m. on August 16, 2023, Tai called Mr. NVT (residing in Rach Gia City). They gave false information that they would support Mr. T. in increasing his credit limit from 100 million to double.

Because of trust, Mr. T. provided all personal information. Immediately, Thai ordered 4 Iphone 14 phones for over 96 million VND. After successfully placing the order and paying, Thai asked Chuong and Tai to pick up the purchased goods, sell them, and split the money to spend.

As for Mr. T., after providing the card information and OTP code, the account was deducted the above amount. Mr. T. contacted the bank to stop the transaction but was unsuccessful.

By the end of September 2023, Chuong was afraid of being discovered by the police so he left the group. Thai and Tai then rented an apartment in Thu Duc (HCMC) to continue committing crimes.

Here, Thai met his old friend Ho Minh Phuc and invited him to join. Police determined that the group of Thai, Tai and Phuc committed about 15 cases of property appropriation from victims in many provinces and cities.

After receiving the report from Mr. T., Rach Gia City Police conducted an investigation and arrested Thai, Tai and Chuong. On March 9, knowing he could not escape punishment, Ho Minh Phuc went to the police station to surrender and confessed to all his crimes.