Being scammed of nearly half a billion dong because of believing in fake facebook

Police officers of Hoang Mai town take statement of suspect Cao Thi Thu Hien. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Around June 2021, Cao Thi Thu Hien took other people's photos and information and created a Facebook account "Ut Nho". After that, Hien became friends with Facebook "Kien Bui" owned by Mr. BKK (born in 1995) residing in Ninh Binh province.

When they first met, Hien introduced herself to Mr. K. as “Do Huong”, born in 1995, with an original birth certificate in 1993, living at 18 Le Duan Street, Vinh City, and currently living in Thanh Oai Commune, Thanh Tri District, Hanoi City. Hien was a student of the People's Security Academy in 1993, working at the Ministry of Public Security and owning Viet Nhat Company Limited, specializing in distributing TH milk and trading agricultural products. After that, Hien used the phone number 0899.602.160 to create a zalo account “Lang” and then added Mr. K. to zalo. In addition, Hien also gave Mr. K. the phone number 0705.494.471 to contact. After a period of time (from June to September) getting to know each other and talking back and forth on Facebook and Zalo, Mr. K. developed feelings for Hien and completely trusted the information Hien created.

The arrested subject. Photo: Hong Ngoc

From September 12, 2021 to the end of November 2021, Cao Thi Thu Hien asked to borrow money from Mr. K. for many reasons such as: buying land, paying for medicine, food, buying a phone, handling goods held at the border gate... and told Mr. K. to transfer to Lien Viet Postbank account number. Accordingly, Mr. K. transferred money to Hien 14 times with a total amount of 470,200,000 VND. All the transfers to Hien's account number, Mr. K. made on the Smartbanking application and in many different locations, including Hanoi city and Hoang Mai town, Nghe An province.

On December 6, 2021, Mr. K. could not contact Hien, so he went to Nghe An to find out and verify. He learned that the person whose photo was in the Facebook account that Hien createdfakeHer name is Trang, residing in Vinh city. In fact, Trang was not the one who talked to and had a love relationship with Mr. K. Knowing that he had been deceived, Mr. K. went to the Hoang Mai town police to report.

Realizing the seriousness of the case, Hoang Mai Town Police established a special project, co-chaired with the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department of Nghe An Provincial Police to focus on the fight. Using professional measures, the police force identified Cao Thi Thu Hien as the subject who had committed fraud and appropriated Mr. BKK's property. On December 16, 2021, Hoang Mai Town Police executed an emergency detention order against Cao Thi Thu Hien. At the investigation agency, Hien confessed to all of her crimes. Currently, the special project is still being investigated and clarified by Hoang Mai Town Police.