'Crash' on virtual foreign exchange trading floor Verbo Capital, defrauding 300 billion VND
Players will be guided by the leaders to create accounts, deposit money and place orders to invest; then intervene in placing orders, adjust Spread (difference between buying and selling prices) causing the player's account to lose money according to the leader's wishes.
Bac Ninh Provincial Police have just coordinated with the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security to successfully crack down on a case, shutting down the Verbo Capital foreign exchange trading floor, which had committed fraud and appropriated up to 300 billion VND from many victims across the country; issued a decision to prosecute the case and prosecute 10 suspects for fraud and property appropriation.
The ringleaders are Chinese subjects and the effective assistance of a group of Vietnamese subjects to attract and select agents and investors (called players) to participate in the transaction. They are Nguyen Van Chung, born in 1995, residing in An Phu district, An Giang province and Pham Tran Phuong Anh, born in 1999, residing in Binh Chanh district, Ho Chi Minh City. In the initial investigation, the police agency determined that the subjects had set up a virtual foreign exchange trading floor called Verbocapital.
Through advertising websites, players will learn and register for investment accounts on the Verbo Capital platform. Players will be guided by the leaders to create accounts, deposit money and place orders to invest; then intervene in placing orders, adjust Spread (difference between buying and selling prices) causing players' accounts to lose money according to the leader's wishes.
To create a closed circle of fraud, the subjects built a network of employees in a multi-level manner, divided specific tasks, used social networks such as Facebook, Zalo, Telegram... to advertise, invite, and attract players to participate in investment. When players agree, they are put into closed groups, and the system of employees pretending to be financial experts will advise and call out orders so that customers can confidently place buy and sell orders and guide them to register an account to participate in investment on the Verbo Capital floor.
The subjects use fraudulent tricks to appropriate players' money by increasing or decreasing Spread; changing leverage..., instructing to place orders with large "lots"... When players request to withdraw money, the subjects find ways to delay the withdrawal, persuade and entice investors to continue placing orders, causing the account to lose money, leading to running out of money in the account. The amount of money appropriated from the victims, the subjects divide according to the management level. With the above tricks, from September 2024 to now, the Verbo Capital floor has about 5,700 transactions, 4,000 victims with the amount of money players deposit into the floor about 300 billion VND.
To successfully crack down on the case, Bac Ninh Provincial Police used synchronous and flexible working measures, quickly coordinated with professional units of the Ministry of Public Security to deploy 5 working groups to arrest subjects in many provinces and cities across the country; seized 26 computers, 1 iPad, 1 printer, 32 phones, 1 Mercedes E200 car with license plate 18D-338.48; and proceeded to freeze money in the accounts of subjects related to the crime, about 8.5 billion VND.
