Nghe An police coordinated to eliminate a gang impersonating judicial officials to defraud Vietnamese citizens, arresting 32 subjects.

"Trick" using Vietnamese people to deceive Vietnamese people

Since July 2023, through the work of grasping the situation, the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Police) discovered that in Nghe An province, there are a number of subjects and groups with many suspicious signs working for foreign companies to defraud and appropriate property of Vietnamese people in many localities across the country.

The activities of this gang have caused insecurity and disorder in the area and angered the masses. Faced with this situation, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police reported to the Director of the Provincial Police Department to establish a special project to combat it.

Based on collected documents, the Police Agency determined that the subjects in the above line are an organized criminal gang working for foreign companies with a common purpose of defrauding and appropriating the property of Vietnamese people.

During the investigation, the police identified Tang Quang Vinh (born in 1989), residing in Ward 11, District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, currently working in Cambodia, as one of the masterminds in charge of managing and operating the organization, in collusion with Nghe An people and Taiwanese people (China) to organize Vietnamese people to commit crimes in companies abroad.

Professional, organized fraud "machine"

Accordingly, the Vietnamese subjects who operate to defraud and appropriate assets for a company located in Cambodia are organized into 3 lines including D1, D2, D3. In which, D1 are the subjects who will act as officers working at functional agencies with the task of calling people according to a pre-prepared list to notify the "prey" about having their SIM cards locked, bank accounts frozen because the victims are involved with fraudulent organizations or their accounts and phone numbers are being used by fraudulent organizations for criminal activities.

When the victim believes in the scenario, the D1 subjects will transfer the victim's call to D2 - who claim to be Captain A - Officer of the Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security (or other appropriate unit), informing the victim that his/her identity documents are being used by criminals to commit crimes... (consistent with the content of the D1 call), requesting cooperation in the investigation, threatening to issue an order for temporary detention, an order to freeze the victim's account.

When the victim is scared, the subject asks the victim to declare which bank account they are currently using, the assets (savings book, cash, gold, foreign currency, vehicles...) they have so that the authorities can verify. If the victim is not aiding the criminal, they will return them.

After the victim provides information about bank accounts, passwords... this information will be transferred to D3 (the masterminds and leaders of the network). D3 asks the victim to go to the bank to register for electronic banking services, read the login information and OTP codes to the subject, thereby taking over the victim's electronic bank account.

Next, D3 subjects asked the victims to withdraw their savings books, borrow money to transfer to bank accounts, and then transfer money from the victims' bank accounts to the subjects' bank accounts to appropriate.

During the entire process of contacting the victim, the subjects always require the victim to stay in an independent, private space, not to let anyone else know about the incident, and to keep in touch regularly to easily manipulate the victim's psychology.

Fraud many victims with over 200 billion VND

During the process of monitoring and synchronously applying professional measures from 04:30 to 08:00 on February 6, 2024, under the direction of the Director of the Provincial Police, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police presided over and coordinated with the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security, the Police of Yen Thanh, Con Cuong, Dien Chau, Tan Ky districts, the Immigration Management Department, Group 373 (Nghe An Police)... and Ho Chi Minh City Police, the Police of Binh Thuan, Long An provinces, Moc Bai International Border Gate Border Guard Station (Tay Ninh) to successfully break the case, simultaneously search and arrest 32 subjects in the ring in many provinces and cities across the country, and seize many related exhibits.

In addition to Tang Quang Vinh (the ringleader), the remaining 31 subjects arrested by the Police Agency include 03 subjects residing in Ho Chi Minh City including Vu Hoang Minh Tuan (born 1992); Le Tuan (born 1996) and Pham Thanh Hau (born 1996) and 02 subjects residing in Binh Thuan and Thanh Hoa provinces: Le Van Tam (born 1998), residing in Tanh Linh district, Binh Thuan and Le Tien Tung (born 1991), residing in Dong Son district, Thanh Hoa.

In Nghe An, related to the above line, the Police Agency arrested 26 subjects including: 15 subjects residing in Yen Thanh district; 07 subjects residing in Con Cuong district; 03 subjects residing in Dien Chau district; 01 subject residing in Tan Ky district.

At the police station, the suspects confessed to having committed many frauds to appropriate property from Vietnamese people residing in many localities across the country with a total fraud amount of more than 200 billion VND.

Currently, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police is continuing to expand the investigation.

Nghe An Police announced that anyone who is a victim of the above group of scammers and has not contacted the Police should quickly report to the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Police for coordination and resolution.

Through the above project, Nghe An Police recommends that people need to be vigilant when receiving calls from phone numbers, the caller claiming to be an officer of a State agency, especially the Police force, to notify and request investigation of the case over the phone; do not provide personal information, phone number, home address... to any subject whose identity and background are unknown; the Police force, the Procuracy, the Court, if working with people, will have an invitation, a summons sent to that person and work directly at the agency's headquarters, not work online... In case of suspicion of fraudulent activities to appropriate property through cyberspace, internet banking, mobile banking, it is necessary to promptly notify the nearest Police.