A 'hot girl's' trick of selling 'virtual' apartments

Spend real money, buy virtual apartments

Recently, the demand for buying houses and apartments of people in Vinh city has been quite high. Taking advantage of that situation, some subjects have used deceitful tricks to sell "virtual apartments" to people, causing confusion in public opinion. One of the victims who was tricked into selling apartments with fake documents is the couple Nguyen Xuan Duc (born in 1972), residing in Nghi Xuan district, Ha Tinh province.

Around the beginning of June 2022, Mr. Duc and his wife signed a deposit contract and an agreement to transfer the sale and purchase contract of Gia Thinh Phat apartment building (Ben Thuy ward, Vinh city) of Gia Thinh Phat Development Joint Stock Company from Chu Thi My Ngoc (born 1997), residing in Truong Thi ward, Vinh city, for more than 1.3 billion VND. But all the documents that this customer received from Ngoc were fake. Because before that, Ngoc had mortgaged and borrowed money from the original apartment sale and purchase contract. After that, when she tricked the company into reissuing the second set of original documents, Ngoc also transferred it to someone else. However, this "monster woman" still deliberately committed the act of defrauding Mr. Duc.

To legitimize his fraud, Ngoc contacted Le Xuan Manh (born in 1991), residing in Nghi Truong commune, Nghi Loc district, to forge various documents. The two went online, ordered a seal bearing the name of the company and the director of the company where the apartment was sold, and then forged 5 apartment sale contracts; 3 apartment handover minutes; 8 receipts and 4 value-added tax invoices of the company.

After having the fake documents, Ngoc transferred the apartment purchase contract to Mr. Duc and his wife, handed over the fake documents and received the full amount of money. The couple from Ha Tinh only knew they had been scammed when they brought the documents to Gia Thinh Phat Development Joint Stock Company to ask for confirmation from the investor. At this time, the company replied, "All documents for the purchase and sale of this apartment are fake." Panicked, Mr. Duc and his wife repeatedly asked Ngoc to return the money but to no avail.

Another victim who was also miserable because of Chu Thi My Ngoc's scam is Mr. Le Anh Dinh (residing in Vinh City). Through an acquaintance, Mr. Dinh learned that Ngoc was selling an apartment in Gia Thinh Phat. After verifying with the apartment management board that the apartment belonged to Ngoc, he agreed to buy it. Around May 2022, Mr. Dinh and Ngoc signed and notarized the apartment transfer document for 700 million VND. But about 2 months later, when Mr. Dinh went to the apartment to complete the procedure to change the apartment's ownership, he was informed that Ngoc had sold this apartment to many people.

Knowing that he had been scammed, Mr. Dinh reported Ngoc’s fraudulent behavior to Nghe An Provincial Police. It is worth mentioning that many victims who were scammed by Chu Thi My Ngoc completely believed the documents that this subject presented. Only when they brought the documents to the apartment management did they realize that Ngoc had deceived them.

Exposing the apartment selling scam of "hot girl"

Recently, the People's Court of Nghe An province opened a trial for defendant Chu Thi My Ngoc on two charges of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Forgery of seals and documents of agencies and organizations; Use of fake seals or documents of agencies and organizations". Although the trial lasted a long time, Ngoc appeared calm during the three times she was escorted to the courtroom. In contrast to the young female defendant, many older victims attended the trial with a sad mood. Because they trusted too much in the words and documents that Ngoc presented, they lost hundreds of millions of dong, even billions.

During the public interrogation in court, defendant Ngoc admitted to defrauding many people by selling apartments. Accordingly, Chu Thi My Ngoc bought an apartment at Gia Thinh Phat apartment building, owned by Gia Thinh Phat Development Joint Stock Company. In January 2022, due to needing money to invest in securities, Ngoc met with a pawn shop owner in Vinh City to discuss borrowing money and was required to have collateral. Therefore, the two parties signed and notarized a document transferring this apartment to the pawn shop owner. However, the two parties only signed and rolled their fingerprints on the transfer document without completing the notarization procedure as prescribed. The purpose of this document was to legalize it as a basis for securing a loan for Ngoc. After rolling her fingerprints, Ngoc handed over all the original apartment purchase and sale documents to the pawn shop to get a loan of 900 million VND.

Afterwards, due to not having money to pay the debt, Ngoc came up with the idea of ​​fraud. Although he had transferred and delivered the original documents to the pawnbroker, Ngoc reported the loss of the original apartment sale contract to ask Gia Thinh Phat Development Joint Stock Company to reissue another set of documents. After being reissued the second set of documents, Ngoc used it to trick others into selling the apartment to get money to spend and invest in virtual currency. Not stopping there, Ngoc also colluded with Le Xuan Manh to buy fake seals to trick others into selling or mortgaging the apartment to others to appropriate money.

The investigation agency determined that within 10 days (from June 16 to July 6, 2022), Ngoc used a set of fake apartment purchase and sale contracts to defraud and appropriate property of 6 people in Vinh City and Nghi Xuan District (Ha Tinh), with a total amount of more than 4.3 billion VND.

Price

At the trial, the two defendants admitted to the crimes as charged in the indictment. Defendant Ngoc confessed that the tricks he used were only to take other people's money for personal expenses, to pay off debts, and to invest in virtual currency. Investing in virtual currency was increasingly losing money, making it impossible for him to stop.

In this case, Le Xuan Manh was prosecuted for “Forgery of documents of an organization”. This defendant admitted that because of respect and affection for Ngoc, he helped the female defendant order fake documents online. It was the defendant Manh’s actions that helped Ngoc commit many acts of fraud, selling and mortgaging apartments to many people in a short period of time. Manh showed remorse for his crimes and shed tears many times while standing next to defendant Ngoc.

The panel of judges determined that this was an especially serious case, the defendant had disregarded all means to commit fraud, causing panic among the public and the masses, so it needed to be strictly handled to serve as a deterrent and general prevention. Considering the case comprehensively, the court sentenced Chu Thi My Ngoc to 19 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property", 5 years in prison for "Forgery of seals and documents of agencies and organizations; Using fake seals or documents of agencies and organizations". The total common sentence for defendant Ngoc is 24 years in prison. The court also ordered defendant Ngoc to compensate the victims for damages. For the crime of "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations", the court sentenced Le Xuan Manh to 3 years in prison.

This is a warning lesson for many people, to be vigilant in executing real estate contracts such as houses, apartments, etc. Before signing any documents, people need to research carefully to avoid being tricked by scammers.
(*The victim's name has been changed)