Nghe An police arrest dozens of high-tech criminals

Breaking a series of major cases

In recent years, along with the development of science and technology, information technology, crimes using high technology to defraud and appropriate property have also occurred more and more. Through understanding the situation, Nghi Loc District Police discovered many subjects committing sophisticated fraud, appropriating large sums of money from people in the district, the province and many other provinces and cities. Therefore, many major projects have been established with the determination to fight to the end against this crime.

Typically, on August 2, 2020, Nghi Loc District Police presided over and coordinated with Sung Phai Commune Police and Lai Chau City Police to successfully crack down on Project 720L on "Using high technology to appropriate property" and arrested Tran Thi Ngoc, born in 1997, residing in Sung Phai Commune. The amount of money that Ngoc defrauded and appropriated from the victims was up to 3.5 billion VND. To arrest this subject, Nghi Loc District Police had to work hard to find traces of the subject on the internet, then verify and go to Lai Chau to solve the case.

Previously, in July 2020, Nghi Loc District Police also coordinated with Giao Thuy District Police (Nam Dinh) to arrest Le Thi Trang, born in 1997, residing in Nam Dinh, for fraud and appropriation of property. Trang used 5 fake bank accounts to sell goods online, asking customers to transfer deposits before shipping. After customers transferred deposits, Trang blocked the accounts and cut off contact. In just a short time, Trang successfully defrauded victims across the country in 30 cases, with a total amount of nearly 500 million VND.

A number of high-tech criminals were arrested and prosecuted by Nghi Loc police. Photo: CSCC

Not only arresting criminals using high technology in other provinces, Nghi Loc District Police also broke many special cases that occurred in Nghe An province. For example, special case 0220L on February 21, 2020 arrested Le Thi La Na, born in 2001, residing in Nghia Trung commune, Nghia Dan district. Na used Facebook to defraud online sales to appropriate about 200 million VND. Next, special case 420L on April 14, 2020 arrested Nguyen Dinh Tuan, born in 1993, residing in Vinh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh, for using Facebook to defraud the sale of medical masks and phone SIM cards. After the customer transferred the deposit, Tuan blocked contact and did not deliver the goods.

In 2018 and 2019 alone, Nghi Loc District Police discovered and successfully investigated 3 major cases; in 3 years, 8 major cases were solved, and dozens of subjects were arrested and prosecuted for fraud amounting to billions of VND.

Identifying criminal tricks

Major Nguyen Dinh Cuong - Head of the Criminal Police - Economic - Environmental Team (Nghi Loc District Police) said that the fight against high-tech crimes always requires officers and soldiers to make every effort. Because this is a new type of crime, using many sophisticated tricks, and criminal activities mainly occur in cyberspace, the high anonymity makes tracing very difficult. Moreover, to fight this type of crime, detectives not only have to be proficient in information technology but also have to travel to many locations, coordinate with many localities and units inside and outside the province at a high cost.

Major Nguyen Dinh Cuong also said that, in parallel with the fight to solve the case, Nghi Loc district police have also increased propaganda to help people recognize the signs of high-tech crimes and how to prevent them in many forms such as through meetings, loudspeaker systems in hamlets, and working sessions at the grassroots level... Besides, Nghi Loc district police officers and soldiers have also directly coordinated with Party committees and authorities to help people recognize forms of high-tech crimes such as: online gambling (football betting, lottery, online games with bets...), online fraud.

For example, in the case of Ms. BTT in Nghi Quang commune, Nghi Loc district, because she listened to the invitation to play the lottery of a Facebook account named "Nguyen Cong Thuan", she transferred a total of 400 million VND to the subject many times. After losing a lot of money, Ms. BTT reported to Nghi Loc district police. After establishing a special project 118L to fight, Nghi Loc police identified 16 related subjects residing in Thua Thien Hue province, and arrested two subjects Nguyen Phuc and Nguyen Nhat Ron, both born in 1995. The case was then tried, Nguyen Nhat Ron was sentenced to 30 months in prison, Nguyen Phuc to 12 months in prison.

Nghi Loc District Police traced criminals on cyberspace, cracking many major cases. Photo: Hoai Thu

Nghi Loc District Police representative pointed out that the common online frauds nowadays are using Facebook and Zalo as a means to commit crimes. They often hack Facebook to take control, then use the Facebook to text the victim's relatives and friends to borrow money. Another form that high-tech criminals often apply is to impersonate the police, prosecutors to call, fake arrest warrants sent via Zalo to threaten victims involved in drug trafficking, money laundering and ask the victims to transfer all the money into their accounts for investigation. Or criminals will create fake Facebook accounts pretending to be foreigners, then text to get acquainted with gullible women to gain their trust. Then they announce sending gifts from abroad and coordinate with accomplices to ask the victims to send the cost of receiving the gifts.

Some other subjects find Facebook accounts selling online to trick people into ordering goods in large quantities, such as the case of Nguyen Minh Tuan in Hai Lang district, Quang Tri province. Tuan created a Facebook account impersonating overseas Vietnamese to order goods from victims in the country. After deceiving them into ordering and transferring money, Tuan asked for the victim's account number, then used the SKYPE messaging service with a foreign prefix to send a message to the victim with the content that a foreign bank was informing that money was about to be transferred to the account. Then Tuan sent an access link that he created himself, impersonating banks and impersonating the Westernunion money transfer service. When the victim entered the account password on that access link, Tuan took over the account and withdrew all the money the victim had. In just a short time, Tuan defrauded and appropriated more than 1 billion VND. Among the victims that Tuan defrauded was Ms. NTT in Boi Son commune (Do Luong) who was defrauded of 200 million VND.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Tue - Head of Nghi Loc District Police, high-tech crime is a new form of crime, with a particularly large nature and level of damage, which is placed on par with terrorist crimes by Interpol. Early identification of this type of crime, in a short time, Nghi Loc District Police has dismantled 8 major cases both outside the province and within the province. In the coming time, in addition to strengthening the fight and eradication, the unit will continue to widely propagate, helping people to raise their vigilance, avoid falling into the traps of subjects using high technology to defraud.