Many sophisticated tricks

According to the authorities, there are many forms of fraud related to Land Use Rights Certificates. A typical example is the use of fake "red books" to defraud, sell or mortgage to borrow money to appropriate property.

Accordingly, the subjects often go online to buy or order fake "red books", fake personal documents... then fraudulently sell the land at a cheap price or mortgage it to borrow money and then appropriate it.

Typically, on February 20, 2025, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened the first instance trial of defendant Phan Thi Thu Hoai (born 1976), residing in Thanh Chuong town, Thanh Chuong district, for the crimes of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Using fake documents of agencies and organizations".

According to the indictment, Phan Thi Thu Hoai knew Mr. Tran Xuan V. (residing in Thanh Chuong town) and knew that this person was in the business of pawnshop and credit services. Around the end of March 2022, due to debt and needing money for personal expenses, Hoai came up with the idea of ​​ordering 4 fake documents to mortgage for Mr. V. in order to appropriate the money.

To carry out that plan, Hoai went online and ordered 4 fake "red books" and fake car registration certificates at a total cost of nearly 40 million VND. After ordering 4 fake documents and waiting to receive them, Hoai used other people's real documents twice, taking advantage of Mr. V's trust to borrow money.

Hoai's purpose was to wait until he received the fake documents and then use them as collateral, withdrawing the real documents to appropriate Mr. V's money.

After receiving the fake documents, Hoai used the fake documents twice to defraud Mr. V. of money. The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money Hoai defrauded Mr. V. of 4 times was more than 3.6 billion VND.

At the trial held on February 20, 2025, the People's Court sentenced defendant Phan Thi Thu Hoai to 14 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and 3 years in prison for "Using fake documents of agencies and organizations". The total sentence forced the defendant to serve a sentence of 17 years in prison.

In addition to mortgages and pledges, scammers also use fake red books to appropriate money from victims through buying and selling real estate. Especially now, at the Land Registration Office and its branches, there are a large number of people carrying out administrative procedures.

Taking advantage of people's fear of administrative procedures, especially procedures related to Land Use Rights Certificates (red books), some people "brag" about having wide relationships, or impersonating employees and officials of State agencies to be able to quickly and neatly resolve land procedures to appropriate property.

Typically, in October 2023, the authorities decided to prosecute the case and prosecute the defendant Le Thanh Hung, residing in Dien Ky commune, Dien Chau district, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

According to the investigation results, Le Thanh Hung claimed to be able to handle "full package" land procedures such as: Preparing documents for converting land use purposes, changing information on the Land Use Rights Certificate, preparing documents for land division and granting Land Use Rights Certificate.

To gain the victims' trust, after receiving the money, Hung forged a receipt for the land use rights registration file, used a fake seal from the competent authority to stamp it and gave it to the victims. In addition, he went on social networks to order fake Land Use Rights Certificates and gave them to the victims.

Using the above tricks, from the end of October 2022 to June 2023, Hung defrauded and appropriated the property of 6 victims with a total amount of more than 2.7 billion VND.

At the trial held on September 10, 2024, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced Le Thanh Hung to 16 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and 6 years in prison for "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations; Using fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations".

In addition, some subjects also try to steal information on the "red book" of the land owner who wants to transfer it to make fake and sophisticated tricks to swap the fake "red book" with the real "red book" and then forge the personal documents of the house and land owner to replace them with their own image or that of their accomplices to conduct buying and selling transactions at the notary office or notary office.

Some subjects make fake red books, then make "deposit" transactions to buy and sell and appropriate the victims' money...

Raise awareness

The above situation is partly due to people's subjectivity when conducting land transactions, and lack of verification of information related to ownership.

Some people who jointly invest in real estate, receive transfers, etc. do not carefully research information related to the Land Use Rights Certificate. That is the loophole that subjects take advantage of to forge Land Use Rights Certificates to defraud and appropriate property..

In addition, although the law has strict sanctions for the act of forging documents, including "red books". (Specifically, according to the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), anyone who forges seals, documents or other papers of agencies, organizations or uses fake seals, documents or papers to commit illegal acts shall be fined from 30-100 million VND; be subject to non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or be imprisoned from 6 months to 2 years. In addition, this act can be punished with a maximum of 7 years in prison).

However, with the explosion of technology for counterfeiting documents and the development of the internet, some people deliberately violate the law and assist in fraudulent activities.

Typically, on December 15, 2024, Nghe An province's functional forces directly went to Dong Nai to arrest and urgently searched the residence of Nguyen Duc Tinh at address RD38/08, Long Hung resettlement area, Phuoc Hoi hamlet, Long Hung commune, Bien Hoa city, confiscating hundreds of fake documents and many tools and machines for making fake documents. Expanding the investigation, the Task Force arrested 2 more subjects in the document forgery ring.

At the investigation agency, Nguyen Duc Tinh confessed that from the beginning of 2024 until his arrest, he and his accomplices had successfully forged thousands of papers and documents of all kinds for customers across the country; for each forged paper or document, the subject collected from 3 to 5 million VND.

To prevent and stop acts of fraud and property appropriation, authorities recommend: People need to be more vigilant when using services to carry out administrative procedures related to land.

In particular, when it is necessary to carry out administrative procedures, especially procedures related to land documents, it is necessary to go to the office or state management agency to carry out, not through an intermediary to avoid "losing money and getting into trouble".

In case of detecting abnormalities in land transactions or suspecting that red books or other documents are forged, people need to immediately report to the nearest commune or ward police and collect relevant information and documents to report to the authorities for handling according to regulations.

In addition, notary organizations and People's Committees of communes and wards need to closely check the legality of the Land Use Rights and House Ownership Certificates provided by people, thereby promptly detecting cases of forgery to coordinate with functional forces for timely handling.