Using fraudulent tactics to embezzle billions of dong while playing card games.

The Nghe An Provincial People's Court recently held a trial for defendant Dao Thi Duyen (born in 1987), residing in Hung Phuc ward, Vinh City, on the charge of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

According to the case file, Dao Thi Duyen participated in a "rotating savings and credit association" from the end of 2020 to the beginning of June 2021, led by Vo Thi Thu Hien, residing in Vinh City.

According to Hien's rules, when it's time for the guild to compete, the guild members must bid higher, and whoever bids higher will receive the money. Before the guild competition, players must deposit the guild fee by transferring money to Hien's bank account via Internet Banking.

Between July 2021 and September 2021, knowing that Ms. Hien ran many online gambling games with many participants and a large amount of money transferred daily that was difficult to control, Duyen conceived the idea of ​​using fake bank transfer images (or fake bills) on Internet Banking applications to embezzle money from these gambling games.

Duyen used a trick: she installed a bank's money transfer service app on her phone. Then, she used her own account to transfer the exact amount of money for the village festival to another bank account of hers. The purpose was for the bank to send a text message notifying her that the money had been deducted from her account, matching the amount of the village festival.

Afterward, Duyen took a screenshot of the phone showing the money transfer notification and filled in Hien's account information, but in reality, she did not make the transfer.

After creating the fake image using the above trick, Duyen sent it to the neighborhood gossip group to deceive Ms. Hien into believing she had paid the neighborhood fee. Trusting her, and also receiving many messages throughout the day, Ms. Hien had no suspicions and thought that Duyen had paid the fee.

Defendant Dao Thi Duyen. Photo: Tran Vu

On September 24, 2021, Ms. Hien received 7 images of money transfers from Duyen. Seeing that Duyen sent the money early, Ms. Hien checked to see if the money had arrived in her account, but it hadn't. Hien called to inquire, and Duyen said it was due to a bank error.

Suspecting something was amiss, Ms. Hien checked all the images that Duyen had submitted to the ward office and also went to the bank to print out her account statement for comparison. She discovered that the images Duyen had previously sent did not match the bank statement. When questioned, Duyen admitted that the images were fake and promised to refund the money.

During the investigation, authorities determined that, using fraudulent methods, from June 2nd to September 24th, 2021, Dao Thi Duyen used fake bills to deposit into 46 lottery accounts, defrauding Ms. Hien of 3.6 billion VND.

At the trial, the defendant confessed honestly and admitted his actions. He stated that, seeing that Ms. Hien ran many gambling dens and received a large number of money transfer messages daily that he couldn't possibly manage, he conceived the idea of ​​creating fake bills to defraud and misappropriate her assets.

Before the trial, the defendant had his family voluntarily compensate the victim with over 2.1 billion VND.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society, that the defendant had a bad character, and had been repeatedly fined for gambling but had not reformed himself.

Considering all aspects of the case, the panel of judges sentenced the defendant Dao Thi Duyen to 12 years and 6 months in prison; the court also ordered the defendant to compensate the victim for the remaining amount of over 1.4 billion VND.