Beware of high-tech scams by foreigners

Recently, in Hanoi, a number of foreigners have been found using fake credit cards to withdraw money and embezzle money. Two Chinese scammers have been arrested by the police.

Fake credit cards (right photo) of Wang Hai Cheng (left photo).

According to detectives of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department (PC50) - Hanoi City Police, since the beginning of June 2014, they have received reports about the whereabouts of a foreign subject carrying counterfeit credit card making tools while traveling to Thailand, Cambodia, Laos... to commit property appropriation. On June 14, this subject entered Vietnam through Moc Bai border gate. The "net" to capture Wang Hai Cheng (Vuong Hai Thanh - born in 1986, Chinese nationality) was set up when this subject arrived in Hanoi. At 11:30 on June 23, the PC50 working group coordinated with Department C50 - Ministry of Public Security, Trang Tien Ward Police (Hoan Kiem District, Hanoi) caught Wang Hai Cheng red-handed using 11 fake Visa Master electronic payment cards to buy Iphone 5S phones at a store on Hang Bai Street. Checking Wang Hai Cheng's lodgings at a hotel on Giai Phong Street, the police seized 2 laptops, 2 magnetic stripe scanners that recorded credit card information, USBs and memory cards that recorded stolen credit card information.

Wang Hai Cheng confessed that while in China, through QQ software (Chinese chat software), he got acquainted with some Chinese people and was provided with stolen credit card information, instructions on how to make fake cards to go to Southeast Asian countries to withdraw money and embezzle. According to the agreement, Wang was divided 35% of the embezzled money by the subjects. Before using the fake card to withdraw money, Wang had to notify the subjects and after withdrawing money, he had to send them the withdrawal receipt to manage the division. The act of illegally using account information, bank cards of agencies, organizations, individuals, and counterfeiting bank cards to embezzle property by Wang Hai Cheng was prosecuted by the Investigation Agency and the accused.

Previously, on June 18, Team 4 - PC50 coordinated with Thanh Xuan Trung Ward Police to catch Feng Hai Qiang - also known as Cuong (born in 1989, Chinese nationality) using a fake ATM card to withdraw money at an ATM in Thanh Xuan Trung Ward (Thanh Xuan District, Hanoi). Checking Cuong's belongings, the working group discovered 14 fake cards from different banks and 6.5 million VND that Cuong had just taken, along with high-tech equipment to produce fake cards. Notably, these fake credit cards were on the outside of Chinese banks, but the card information was all accounts of Vietnamese banks. The police also seized many machines and equipment that Feng Hai Qiang brought to Vietnam to make fake ATM cards such as card number stamping machines, magnetic coating machines, foil coating machines, and silver coating machines on ATM cards.

Authorities believe that the above-mentioned individuals’ use of fake credit cards to appropriate assets is a serious matter. Therefore, businesses need to be vigilant in transactions involving foreigners and, if there are any suspicious signs, immediately report them to the nearest authorities.

According to Labor