Warning about impersonating officials to commit fraud

Sophisticated tricks

According to the authorities, scammers often impersonate officials of state administrative agencies to defraud and appropriate property using various methods and tricks. There are cases where the amount of money scammed is up to tens of billions of dong.

Authorities work with Le Thanh Hai - the leader of a ring impersonating officials of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to defraud and appropriate property. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Typically, on June 14, 2022, Nghe An Police broke up the "Fraudulent appropriation of property and use of fake documents of agencies and organizations" case, arresting 3 subjects in a ring impersonating officials of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to defraud and appropriate more than 15 billion VND from 25 victims across the province. This group of subjects was led by Le Thanh Hai (with 5 previous convictions), residing in Truong Thi ward, Vinh city. Hai's effective assistants in this ring were 02 subjects both residing in Vinh city, including: Le Kien Trung (born in 1979), residing in Le Loi ward and Tran Dien Thuong (born in 1976), residing in Hung Dung ward, with 2 previous convictions for the crimes of "Illegal trading of narcotics" and "Human trafficking".

To run his network, Le Thanh Hai directed and assigned tasks to Trung to approach people with needs related to the land sector and then introduced himself as working at the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, having many relationships, and being able to successfully auction planned land lots; legalizing the merging and separating of Land Use Right Certificates, and converting land use purposes. When people trusted him, Trung directly received money and related documents from the victims and gave them to Hai. After that, Hai assigned Thuong to contact and make fake Land Use Right Certificates and give them to the victims.

From left to right, group of 3 subjects: Le Thanh Hai, Le Kien Trung and Tran Dien Thuong. Photo: Hong Ngoc

More sophisticatedly, although registered permanent residence in Vinh city, to avoid detection by authorities, Hai directed the subjects in the ring to temporarily move to live in the southern provinces (Ba Ria - Vung Tau, Da Nang). Only when discovering and contacting the "prey", the two subjects Trung and Thuong returned to Nghe An, coordinating with Hai to continue defrauding and appropriating property. After a period of monitoring, on June 8, 2022, 3 working groups under the direct direction of the provincial police leaders simultaneously arrested the above 3 subjects. The seized exhibits included 1 car; 5 mobile phones; 10 fake land use right certificates; 1 fake car registration and many related documents, the authorities also simultaneously froze 3 bank accounts.

Subject Nguyen Thi Van Anh impersonated a journalist to defraud and appropriate property. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Previously, in April 2022, Dien Chau District Police discovered a subject in the area who claimed to be a reporter and had a press card, and had acquaintances with many officials who were leaders in the Central Government as well as Nghe An province.

The subject can convert the red book from agricultural land to long-term residential land and some people have transferred money to the subject. Faced with the above situation, Dien Chau District Police have established a special project to fight. At 9:00 a.m. on April 27, 2022, in Dien Hanh Commune, Dien Chau District Police successfully broke the project. Arrested subject Nguyen Thi Van Anh (born in 1976), residing in the commune for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property"; seized 53 red books and 2 mobile phones. In the initial investigation, the authorities determined that from the beginning of 2021 to April 2022, Van Anh impersonated a reporter of Thanh Tra Newspaper, claiming to have acquaintances with many officials who are leaders in the Central as well as Nghe An province to receive procedures to illegally convert agricultural land to long-term residential land for 5 victims residing in Dien Chau District and some other localities; In which, the victims transferred more than 9 billion VND to the subject. It is worth mentioning that the victims used fake red books to illegally build on agricultural land and dealt with local authorities with fake red books made by Nguyen Thi Van Anh, causing many complicated consequences.

The Investigation Police Agency of Dien Chau District Police has prosecuted Van Anh for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and continues to expand the investigation.

In particular, there are cases where the subject is from another province but impersonates a State official in Nghe An province to commit fraud. Typically, on December 16, 2021, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ha Tinh Police coordinated with Loc Ha District Police to arrest Le Van Phong (born in 1989), residing in An Loc village, Thach Chau commune, Loc Ha district (Ha Tinh) for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Subject Le Van Phong (middle). Photo: CAND

At the police station, Phong confessed that he had used a junk SIM card to create social media accounts impersonating an official of a department or agency in Nghe An province. After that, he proactively contacted a number of directors of construction companies in Ha Tinh province to make promises to create conditions for these companies to win bids in Nghe An province, with the aim of defrauding and appropriating property. Using the above tricks, Phong defrauded and appropriated more than 56 million VND from Mr. Phan Huy Thiet (born in 1976), director of a company in Ha Tinh.

In Nghe An, after more than 1 year of implementing Directive No. 21/CT-TTg on strengthening the prevention and handling of fraudulent activities to appropriate assets, the authorities have discovered and arrested 92 cases, 122 subjects committing the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of assets", recovered assets with a total value of more than 19.5 billion VND and returned them to the victims. Of which, 32 major cases were solved, contributing to the prevention and control of fraud.hero ensure good security and order in the area.

Raise awareness

Faced with realityimpersonating an officerin state agencies to commit fraud in many forms, the authorities have repeatedly warned people to be vigilant. According to the Ministry of Public Security, in addition to traditional fraud methods such as: Impersonating state officials, high-ranking leaders to trick people into applying for jobs, "buying positions", "buying cases", applying for projects, making red books, borrowing capital from foreign organizations and individuals; calling for investment, funding for companies, projects, programs... to defraud and appropriate property.

The subjects also use services with the function of impersonating prefix numbers, impersonating phone numbers, impersonating officers of law enforcement agencies to call people to put pressure, make people panic, then request money transfers to accounts provided by these subjects to appropriate. The subjects use many different scenarios such as: Pretending to be a post office employee calling to notify of receiving postal items; telecommunications staff calling to notify of debt; electricity staff calling to notify of debt, threatening to cut off electricity; traffic police calling to notify of fines, causing accidents to flee... contacting the victims to exploit personal information.

To prevent fraud and property appropriation crimes, the authorities recommend that people should increase their knowledge of laws and policies, and regularly monitor the announcements of criminal methods and tricks of the authorities on the media and mass media. Research and check carefully before making financial transactions, and be on guard against investments that bring “high profits”.

Evidence seized by the police in the case of impersonating an officer of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment to commit fraud. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Be vigilant when receiving calls from landline numbers claiming to be officials of state agencies. Do not provide personal information, phone numbers, home addresses, etc. to anyone without knowing their identity and background. In particular, do not listen to the people who transfer money to accounts designated by them.

On the side of Nghe An province, to continue to strengthen the prevention and handling of fraudulent activities to appropriate assets, on November 10, 2021, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Document 8963-UBND-NC, which requires: Enhance the responsibility of leaders of Party committees, authorities, Fatherland Fronts, and organizations at all levels in the prevention, fight, and handling of fraudulent activities to appropriate assets; strengthen inspection and examination work to promptly detect, rectify, and handle violations of the law related to fraudulent activities to appropriate assets. Step up propaganda and prevention of crimes of fraudulent activities to appropriate assets...