Nghe An police dismantled a "virtual currency investment" fraud ring that appropriated assets across borders.

Recently, criminals have taken advantage of cyberspace to commit fraud and property appropriation in a complicated manner; especially Vietnamese people colluding with foreign professional criminal gangs based in ASEAN countries to commit fraud and property appropriation.

Faced with that situation, the Provincial Police Department has directed units and localities to proactively and synchronously use professional measures to combat the situation.

During the verification, the police agency determined that in the "Golden Triangle" economic zone in Bokeo province, Lao PDR, there was a criminal group led by foreigners, established and operating in the form of a company, specializing in attracting and recruiting Lao and Vietnamese people (including some residing in Con Cuong and Tuong Duong districts) to commit fraud and appropriate property of Vietnamese people in the country.

Accordingly, the subjects in this group were trained and coached to use a "fraud scenario" with Vietnamese victims in 4 steps.

First of all, the scammers created "fake" social media accounts of many people, sharing many images of single, wealthy lives, in which they included many images of income obtained by participating in investments through the "Biconomynft" application (this is a fake virtual currency exchange application created by the subjects themselves and controlled according to their wishes).

Next, the scammers will select suitable “prey”, then send friend requests, chat messages, create love relationships, and date online. After a period of talking, the subjects will find ways to call and entice the victims to invest money in the “Biconomynft” application.

After the victim trusts or falls into a romantic relationship, the subjects will give specific instructions on how to install, use the application, register an account, and participate in investing in buying and selling cryptocurrencies. In order to create trust for the victim, at first, the subjects will transfer to the victim a certain amount of money corresponding to the profit earned when the value of virtual currency increases.

Finally, when the victims have invested a certain amount of money, the subjects will freeze the account for many reasons to appropriate the victims' assets.

To eradicate this transnational fraud ring, under the direction of the Nghe An Provincial Police, the Criminal Police Department of the Provincial Police and Con Cuong District Police jointly chaired and coordinated with relevant units and localities to establish a special project to combat it.

During the investigation, the authorities clarified that Vi Van Linh (born in 2003) and Kha Van Uc (born in 2002), both residing in Con Cuong district, were the two subjects directly involved in the above-mentioned fraud ring.

Accordingly, in September 2023, Vi Van Linh went to Laos and joined the above criminal group to commit fraud and appropriate property. During his work until February 2024, Linh used the Zalo account "Phuong Quynh" and the Facebook account "Pham Quynh Chau" to text, get acquainted and create a romantic relationship with a man residing in Bao Loc City, Lam Dong Province. With the trick of deceiving love and enticing to invest in virtual currency, Linh repeatedly lured the victim to invest in "Biconomynft" and then defrauded the victim of a total of more than 17.6 billion VND. Also with the "similar trick", Kha Van Uc continued to defraud and appropriate more than 1 billion VND from the above man.

From the collected documents and evidence, the Investigation Police Agency has initiated a criminal case and prosecuted Kha Van Uc and Vi Van Linh for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

During the process of expanding the project, under the direction of the leaders of Nghe An Provincial Police, the Criminal Police Department and Con Cuong District Police coordinated with relevant units to arrest, prosecute and detain 3 more subjects for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", including: Loc Van Tao (born in 2001); Luong Van Hien (born in 2001), both residing in Tuong Duong District and Vi Thi Le (born in 2002), residing in Con Cuong District.

The project is currently being investigated and expanded.