Warning about fraudsters impersonating judicial officials

According to information from the Investigation Police Agency of Bac Tu Liem District Police, the unit is temporarily detaining two subjects Nguyen Ngoc Kip (born in 1986, residing in Nga Nam town, Soc Trang province) and Phan Van Long (born in 1969, residing in Lai Hung commune, Bau Bang district, Binh Duong province) to investigate the act offraud and appropriation of property.

The seized exhibits included 3 mobile phones, 80 million VND and 5.2 taels of gold. Unlike previous cases, the subjects did not lure people to transfer money through bank accounts to appropriate it, but were more daring and aggressive, assigning people to meet the victims in person to receive money and property.

Based on the collected documents, the Investigation Police Agency of Bac Tu Liem District Police determined the case as follows: On February 17, 2025, the Investigation Police Agency of Bac Tu Liem District Police received a complaint from Ms. PTHS (residing in Nghia Tan Ward, Cau Giay District, Hanoi) about being scammed and appropriating nearly 1.1 billion VND, which occurred in Xuan Tao Ward, Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi.

At the investigation agency, Ms. S said that on February 17, 2025, she received a call from a strange phone number, introducing herself as "Tri", working at the Supreme Court, and a text message from a Zalo account named "Son Ngo", claiming to be a police officer. Both the call and the text message from the subjects threatened Ms. S, who was involved in a bank fraud and drug trafficking case handled by the authorities. To prove her innocence, the subjects asked Ms. S to give money to the "detectives" for inspection. The subjects even sent a fake temporary detention order from the Supreme People's Procuracy to Ms. S. Out of fear, Ms. S went to the bank to withdraw 1 billion VND in cash and 748,000 VND in interest and brought it home.

In the evening of the same day, following the instructions of Tri “Toa Chien” and “Son Ngo”, Ms. S brought all the money she had withdrawn to the front of Quang Minh building (Diplomatic Group area, Xuan Tao ward, Bac Tu Liem, Hanoi) to wait and give it to the “detectives” as instructed. Here, Ms. S directly gave the money to Phan Van Long and then went home. Suspecting that she had been scammed, Ms. S went to report to the Bac Tu Liem District Police.

After receiving the report from Ms. S, the Investigation Police Agency of Bac Tu Liem District Police urgently verified, searched for and detained two related subjects, Nguyen Ngoc Kip and Phan Van Long. The subjects confessed that they had joined the telegram group of the "Company" introduced by an acquaintance to carry out the task of collecting money. After receiving the money, Long received 15 million VND, Kip received 5 million VND. The remaining amount, Long gave to a woman named Hoang (a subject related to the "Company") to transfer the money. The authorities are continuing to verify and clarify Hoang's position, role, and violations for handling according to regulations.

Then, at around 3:00 p.m. on February 18, 2025, through the telegram group, Long and Kip continued to be notified by the "Company" to go get money at address 76, house B6, Duong sub-area, Phu Minh town, Phu Xuyen, Hanoi. Here, Kip sat in a taxi while Long went down to meet and receive a plastic bag containing a lot of gold from an elderly man, then got in a taxi and left.

Through verification, the man who gave gold to Long was Mr. NST (76 years old, residing in Phu Minh town, Phu Xuyen district, Hanoi). Through working with the investigation agency, Mr. T said he received a phone call from a person claiming to be Le Minh Tri (former Police Colonel, currently working as Chief of the Supreme People's Procuracy) and a call from the Zalo account "Son Ngo" claiming to be a police officer. The subjects said that Mr. T was involved in the case of fake citizen identification and drug trafficking, and that his assets needed to be checked. Subject "Tri" asked Mr. T what assets he had, and he said he had saved 5.2 taels of gold. "Tri" asked Mr. T to display the gold, take a photo and send it to "Tri" via Zalo, then he would send a "detective" directly to check. At the same time, “Tri” instructed Mr. T to write two papers, including “Asset Inspection Request” and “Bail Request”, and put them in a bag containing gold to give to the “detective”. Following the instructions of the subjects, Mr. T gave the gold to Long. In addition, the subjects also required Mr. T and his wife not to tell anyone after giving the gold to the “detective” and the “detective” would continuously monitor Mr. T’s family.

Authorities are continuing to verify and clarify the behavior and related subjects for handling according to regulations.