The scam of 'fake journalists'

Exposing the fraudulent tricks of "fake" journalists

Nghe An Provincial People's Court has just opened a trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Van Anh (47 years old), residing in Dien Hanh commune, Dien Chau district, for the crimes of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and "Using fake documents and seals of agencies and organizations".

Van Anh is from Hanoi, but rented a house in Dien Hanh commune. While living here, this subject came up with the idea of ​​​​fraud, appropriating other people's money by tricking them into changing the land use purpose. To carry out his fraud, Van Anh went on social networks to ask a man (unknown background) to make a fake press card, a fake civil servant inspection card with his name and photo attached for 10 million VND. After having the fake press card, Van Anh showed it to many people and introduced himself as the Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the electronic information portal of the Central region of a major newspaper, having wide relationships with departments, branches and sectors in Nghe An and the Central region, so he could change the land use purpose, from agricultural land to residential land.

The “prey” she aimed at was none other than the neighboring families, including Mrs. Tran Thi H. (50 years old). From the times Mrs. H. came to visit, Van Anh said she was a journalist, then showed her fake press card and inspection card, showed her trophies, certificates of merit… with Van Anh’s name awarded by the Vietnam Press Department. This “monster” said she was capable of changing the land use purpose.

To gain the trust of her neighbors, Van Anh took Ms. H. to see a plot of rice field whose owner was unknown and then made up a story about buying this plot for 200 million VND, after converting the land use purpose to residential land, the plot of land was being offered for 3.5 billion VND. When she saw that her neighbors trusted her, Van Anh told Ms. H. to buy agricultural land in an area close to the road, close to the projects and then gave it to her to do the procedures to convert it to residential land.

Believing what this person said was true, Ms. H. bought many agricultural plots and asked Van Anh to convert them into residential land. Using the above trick, Van Anh defrauded this family of a huge amount of money 6 times. Specifically, in June 2021, Ms. H. asked Van Anh to convert an agricultural plot of land with an area of ​​more than 1,000 square meters into residential land and split it into 7 plots of land. Van Anh requested a conversion cost of nearly 1.6 billion VND, a deposit of 1/3 of the cost, and a commitment that within 6 months of completing the conversion, when she had the "red book", Ms. H. had to pay the remaining amount. Ms. H. agreed and transferred money to Van Anh many times.

After receiving the deposit, Van Anh hired someone to make 7 fake land use right certificates (for 165 million VND) and then gave them to Mrs. H. Holding the fake "red book", the neighbor did not know that she had been deceived by Van Anh. In the following months, using the same trick, Van Anh defrauded Mrs. H. a total of 6 times, appropriating more than 6.1 billion VND.

It is worth mentioning that during the process of defrauding Ms. Tran Thi H., this subject also contacted and provided false information to defraud Ms. H's son. This son, because he saw that Van Anh had given his mother "red books" from agricultural land to residential land, believed those words to be true. Therefore, he relied on Van Anh and was defrauded by this subject of 4.5 billion VND.

In addition to the above tricks, Nguyen Thi Van Anh also asked the victims to buy and contribute to the cost of converting the land use purpose. When the victims trusted her and sent money, this subject immediately appropriated the money of the "partner". The investigation agency determined that from May 2021 to April 2022, Nguyen Thi Van Anh appropriated a total of more than 12.5 billion VND from 5 victims.

Using scam money for cosmetic surgery

At the trial, despite wearing a prisoner's uniform, the female defendant still exuded the beauty of a lady with neatly braided light-colored hair, fair skin, and red lipstick. Although she is nearly 50, Van Anh's beauty still attracts people because she had previously spent hundreds of millions of dong on cosmetic surgery. It is worth noting that the investment in cosmetic surgery was made from the money she had defrauded. In addition, the defendant also confessed to using the money she had appropriated from the victims to buy many real estates in Vinh City, Da Nang, and Hanoi. The female defendant also used that money to buy many cars, including billion-dollar cars, to travel and continue to defraud others.

In addition, Van Anh confessed that she also spent billions of dong to buy gold for storage. In particular, the female defendant also spent a lot of money on beauty treatments. This defendant went to a famous cosmetic facility in Vinh City to have cosmetic surgery. In addition, the defendant also confessed that she bought many expensive items for her family, and spent all of it on personal expenses…

After the case was exposed, the authorities seized and recovered some assets and returned the money to the victims. However, the defendant admitted to selling many assets before being arrested by the police, so the authorities had no basis to recover them. Up until the day before the trial, the defendant had returned more than 5.5 billion VND to the victims.

At the trial, the “fake” journalist continuously burst into tears, admitting to her crimes. The defendant stated that she was no longer able to pay her debts and apologized to the victims. “I know that in the past, I have made your families very miserable and miserable. I myself have had to pay a heavy price. I lost everything, lost my family, lost my relatives, lost my friends just because my mistake was too big. I hope you will be lenient, so that I can return soon to correct my mistakes, find a job to earn an income, and compensate the victims,” the female defendant bowed her head and apologized to the victims in court.

Lessons for many

Attending the trial, a victim presented to the panel of judges in a choked voice: Because they were neighbors, every time Van Anh came to visit, she would show off her gold cup for journalism awards. They also saw Van Anh boast about receiving many high-ranking leaders who sent her beautiful flower baskets to keep in the house. "We trusted this person so much that we didn't take any precautions. Every time she was away from home, Van Anh would proactively call me and say she was in a meeting, sitting with Central leaders, which made my family believe her," the victim explained.

Because of their trust, this family mortgaged all their red books to the bank, then borrowed money from many other people to give to Van Anh. "Every time we met, she said: Please wait patiently, in just 3 months you will have a prosperous life, you won't have to work but still have money to spend. I see you as a sister so I help you like this", the victim continued to explain and said that Van Anh told her family not to check the "red book", if they checked it themselves, the project would fall apart.

Being gullible and lacking awareness, this family repeatedly gave money to Van Anh until many of their properties were mortgaged to the bank, but the "red books" they received were fake. "When we discovered we had been deceived, we were shocked, some of us had to be hospitalized. The defendant deceived even adults and people in the countryside who had no jobs, it was an immoral act. The defendant's actions are unacceptable," said a victim, adding that the family now had to sell their ancestral land to pay off the bank debt. Many family members are now crowded together on a small piece of land, suffering immensely. Therefore, the victim requested the court to severely punish the defendant.

Having committed the crime with aggravating circumstances of 2 or more times, the defendant Nguyen Thi Van Anh was sentenced by the court to 17 years in prison for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property, 3 years in prison for the crime of Using fake documents and seals of agencies and organizations; The total sentence is 20 years in prison. In addition, the court also ordered the defendant to compensate the victims for the amount of money misappropriated (subtracted from the amount of money previously recovered).

Thus, the defendant's criminal behavior had to pay the price with a suitable sentence. However, this is also a lesson for many people, not to believe too much in the appearance, in the "label" that the scammer created and then entrust a large amount of money, only to lose money and fail.