Be careful when renting or borrowing bank accounts.

Do not open and buy or sell personal accounts.

Not long ago, the Ministry of Public Security's website warned people about some people using bank accounts that are not their own as addresses to receive fraudulent money. Most of these accounts belong to people who are in difficult circumstances or have been lured into not knowing that opening an account to sell, rent, or lend is a violation of the law, thereby creating conditions for criminals to use as a tool to commit fraud in cyberspace.

Evidence seized by the police. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Recently, Nghe An police have dismantled a ring of "Illegal collection, storage, exchange, and public sale of information about bank accounts" in many provinces and cities. The leader of this ring is Le The Trung (37 years old), residing in Cau Giay District, Hanoi City. Trung's three right-hand men are: Bui Van Nhat (27 years old), residing in Nghia Dan District, Nghe An Province; Le Van Ha (30 years old), residing in Thanh Hoa Province; and Le Trung Kien (32 years old), both residing in Thanh Hoa Province. To operate this ring, Le The Trung set up a construction company, but in fact this was just a front for Trung to contact subjects abroad who wanted to rent or buy back bank accounts. From there, Trung assigned his "henchmen" to find and buy back bank accounts of hundreds of people across the country.

To successfully crack the case, Nghe An police mobilized dozens of officers and soldiers to simultaneously arrest, search the people, residences and workplaces of related subjects in Nghe An, Thanh Hoa, Phu Tho provinces and Hanoi city. By June 2, 2022, a total of 10 subjects in this case had been arrested. The police seized evidence: 20 mobile phones, 08 laptops, 03 cars, more than 1,500 phone SIM cards, 650 bank cards of various types and other evidence related to the criminal activities of the subjects. At the same time, over 1,200 bank accounts related to the subjects in the case were frozen.

The subjects in the case were arrested by the police. Photo: Hong Ngoc

The police also proved that the amount of money transacted through each account rented or bought by Trung was about 50 billion VND, with some accounts trading over 400 billion VND. Initially, the subjects confessed that from 2020 to early 2022, they had bought, rented, and borrowed about 3,000 bank accounts of more than 600 people in many provinces and cities. Up to this point, there are still 633 active accounts.

Therefore, the police force recommends that people do not open, buy or sell personal accounts. In case you have opened a bank account and then transferred it to someone else, you need to bring your personal documents to the bank to close the account to protect yourself and prevent people from using the account as a tool to commit crimes. Do not provide personal information, passwords of social network accounts, banks, e-wallets and OTP codes to strangers or transfer money to organizations or individuals impersonating officials or state agencies to handle legal procedures, from which the subject can easily appropriate property.

Can be punished up to 7 years in prison

The act of illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, and trading bank accounts is a serious violation of the law. Violators may be subject to criminal liability with a maximum penalty of up to 07 years in prison. Specifically, Article 291, Section 2, Chapter XXI, Penal Code 2015 stipulates: Crime of illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, trading, and publicizing information about bank accounts:

1. Anyone who illegally collects, stores, exchanges, buys, sells, or publicly discloses information about other people's bank accounts in the number of 20 to less than 50 accounts or illegally gains from VND 20,000,000 to less than VND 50,000,000, shall be subject to a fine of VND 20,000,000 to VND 100,000,000 or non-custodial reform for up to 03 years.

2. Committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be subject to a fine of from VND 100,000,000 to VND 200,000,000 or imprisonment from 03 months to 02 years:

a) Illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, buying, selling, or publicizing information about other people's bank accounts in the number of 50 to less than 200 accounts; b) Organized; c) Professional; d) Illegally profiting from 50,000,000 VND to less than 200,000,000 VND; e) Dangerous recidivism.

3. Committing a crime in one of the following cases shall be subject to a fine of from VND 200,000,000 to VND 500,000,000 or imprisonment from 02 years to 07 years:

a) Illegally collecting, storing, exchanging, buying, selling, or publicizing information about other people's bank accounts with a quantity of 200 accounts or more; b) Illegally profiting from 200,000,000 VND or more.

4. The offender may also be fined from VND 10,000,000 to VND 50,000,000, banned from holding positions, practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 01 to 05 years, or have part or all of his/her property confiscated.

Evidence seized by the police. Photo: Hong Ngoc

Thus, in addition to being responsible for fines, violators must also be criminally responsible. On the other hand, lending names and documents to make cards, open accounts, and rent accounts is, in a certain sense, a form of assisting fraudsters. If these accounts become a means for fraudsters to receive money from fraudulent transactions, it will lead to many consequences, directly affecting the rights and legitimate interests related to transaction activities as well as the security of assets of organizations and individuals. Therefore, people need to be careful and not use their personal documents to open or sell, rent, or lend payment accounts and cards to others.

NEnhance security in bank card transactionsg

In addition, recently there have been many tricks of subjects impersonating the police, the Procuracy, the Court... by phone or through social networks Zalo, Viber... to contact, threaten, and ask people to provide personal information, open bank accounts, provide OTP codes (one-time passwords created by the bank and sent to the account holder's phone number to confirm transactions) or ask people to deposit money, transfer money to verify and resolve cases in order to defraud and appropriate money.

Fake ATM cards were brought from China by criminals. Photo: Xuan Bac

Faced with the complicated situation of high-tech crimes, which tend to increase with increasingly sophisticated methods and tricks, on May 19, 2021, the People's Committee of Nghe An province issued Directive No. 17/CT-UBND on strengthening solutions to prevent and combat high-tech crimes.

In particular, the State Bank of Vietnam Nghe An branch is required to direct credit institutions, credit institution branches, and commercial banks in the area to improve security in online transactions and via bank cards; proactively prevent the installation of electronic devices into ATMs to collect customer information data, thereby counterfeiting ATM cards and appropriating customers' assets. At the same time, coordinate well with investigative agencies at all levels in investigating, verifying, handling crimes, and blocking related accounts when requested.