Inviting elderly people to buy oriental medicine, giving free medical check-ups and then embezzling billions
By purchasing personal medical records and phone numbers of thousands of elderly patients with chronic diseases, Nguyen Van Tam directed a group of employees to impersonate doctors and health inspectors, using junk SIM cards to call and invite them to buy traditional medicine, functional foods and participate in treatment support programs to commit fraud.
On November 22, Bac Tu Liem District Police announced that they had decided to prosecute 10 defendants: Nguyen Van Tam (born in 1999), Nguyen Van Quang (born in 2004), Ngo Duc Nghia (born in 2001), Ngo Viet Hoang (born in 2002), Bui Manh Hung (born in 2002), Ngo Anh Duc (born in 2005), Nguyen Xuan Bach (born in 2000), Bui Van Thuan (born in 1999), all with permanent residence in Yen Nhan, Y Yen, Nam Dinh; Trinh Viet Hoang (born in 2001), permanent residence in Yen Thang, Y Yen, Nam Dinh and Nguyen Nhu Tam (born in 1999), permanent residence in Tam Son, Tu Son, Bac Ninh to investigate the act of fraud and appropriation of property.
Previously, Bac Tu Liem District Police received a complaint from Ms. Tran Thi D about being scammed by a group of people who called to invite her to buy traditional medicine, participate in the Free Health Checkup Support Program, and defrauded and appropriated nearly 1.2 billion VND from her.
The group of scammers were arrested by Bac Tu Liem District Police right at their rented room.
Immediately after receiving the report, the Bac Tu Liem District Police quickly took action, organized an investigation and identified the group of scammers who had appropriated Ms. D's property, led by Nguyen Van Tam. The police arrested the group right at the apartment they rented and used as their headquarters for the scam.
At the police station, Nguyen Van Tam confessed that he hired the above-mentioned group of employees to participate in the fraud ring. In particular, Nguyen Van Quang was assigned to manage a bank account under Quang's name to receive the scammed money.
To prepare for his fraud plan, Nguyen Van Tam bought functional foods that support bone and joint health and insomnia for 30,000 VND/box and bought cheap phones and many unregistered SIM cards, giving them to employees to use as a means of communication and calling to solicit customers.
In particular, Tam bought medical information and phone numbers of patients with bone and joint diseases and insomnia (including name, age, address, type of bone and joint medicine, insomnia medicine purchased; amount of money customers spent to buy medicine, etc.) for 1,000 VND per phone number. Then, Tam assigned a group of employees to directly call to solicit the purchase of oriental medicine, functional foods to treat bone and joint diseases, insomnia and invite them to participate in the "State program to support 80% of the cost of treatment medicine and give free medical examination and treatment cards" to defraud and appropriate property.
Hundreds of boxes of oriental medicine and functional foods of unknown origin were collected by the scammers and gathered in a rented room to serve their fraudulent activities.
To attract more customers, Nguyen Van Tam advertised various oriental medicine products on social networks and gave each employee 50-100 medical information and phone numbers of patients with bone and joint diseases and insomnia to call and solicit. Most of these customers are elderly people with chronic bone and joint diseases and long-term insomnia.
Their tricks are very sophisticated, they pretend to be doctors, health inspectors, exploiting the fear of illness and weakness of the elderly to invite them to buy traditional medicine, functional foods and invite them to participate in the program "People who take traditional medicine for a long time will have the State pay 80% of the medicine purchase price and will be given a free medical examination and treatment card from Central hospitals". This program was thought up by them.
The group also sweetly enticed the victims: "If you agree to participate in the program, you will be able to make a medical examination file and have medicine for bone and joint diseases and insomnia sent to your home. 10 days later, the Association of Health Inspectors will visit and pay 80% of the examination and treatment costs as promised." To participate in the program, they required each victim to pay an advance payment of 1 - 3 million VND to make a file. After the victim agreed to participate, Nguyen Van Quang would package the package including bone and joint disease medicine, a fake warranty card with the customer's name on it, stamped and sent to the victim through the COD service (cash on delivery) of a postal service company delivering goods and the delivery staff would be responsible for collecting 1 - 3 million VND from the victim.
The group of fraudsters was arrested for investigation.
To encourage the staff, Nguyen Van Tam agreed that if the customer was scammed for less than 100 million VND, the staff would receive 20% of the scammed amount. If the scam was over 100 million VND, the staff would receive 30%. Initially, the police determined that with the above method, the group of scammers led by Nguyen Van Tam had scammed 5 victims, appropriating over 1.3 billion VND from the victims.
The Investigation Police Agency of Bac Tu Liem District Police also clarified that, in addition to the above fraud, the group continued to call the victims to scam them about "making a periodic medical examination book, receiving free medicine, and receiving 2.8 million VND per month from the State for 5 years". In addition, the leader Nguyen Van Tam himself impersonated the bank director whose account numbers the victims had transferred money to request VAT payment and made up many reasons to ask the victims to continue transferring money until they were no longer able to pay or discovered that they had been defrauded of their property. Currently, the case is being further investigated.
