Impersonating an official to request an update on population data to defraud and appropriate billions of dollars

On the evening of March 29, the Criminal Police Department of Ho Chi Minh City Police announced that it had arrested the following subjects: Nguyen Duc Vuong Trong (born in 1991; permanent resident of Dak Lak province), Nguyen Tung Duong (born in 1995; permanent resident of Thanh Hoa province), Nguyen Huu Thang (born in 2002; permanent resident of Hung Yen province) to investigate the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts of property appropriation".

Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department's Criminal Police Department received a crime report from Ms. TLH (born in 1974; permanent resident of Hanoi; currently residing in Hiep Binh Phuoc Ward, Thu Duc City) regarding the following incident: At around 2:00 p.m. on January 24, 2024, Ms. H. received a call from a strange phone number, claiming to be a police officer, asking Ms. H. to update her population data due to incorrect information.

After that, a Zalo account added Ms. H. as a friend, introduced himself as a police officer and instructed Ms. H. to access a fake link to update information. Next, this person continued to instruct Ms. H. to perform some operations such as creating an account, filling in some personal information (full name, ID card number and some other information).

When this person continued to ask for more information related to the bank accounts, Ms. H. felt suspicious and hung up. However, shortly after, Ms. H.'s bank accounts and credit cards were stolen for a total of more than 1.8 billion VND.

Immediately after receiving Ms. TLH's complaint, the Criminal Police Department and the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department of the City Police coordinated to conduct synchronous investigation and verification measures. The investigation agency determined that more than VND 1.3 billion of Ms. H.'s money had been taken over by subjects in Cambodia and transferred to many different account numbers.

Ms. H's credit card accounts were used by Nguyen Duc Vuong Trong, Nguyen Tung Duong, and Nguyen Huu Thang to pay for purchases.

At the police station, the subjects confessed that in October 2023, through a group on the internet, Nguyen Duc Vuong Trong met and chatted with a number of people in a property fraud ring operating in Cambodia.

From there, Trong learned that the group's scam method was to impersonate police officers, prosecutors, or bank employees... to call victims; using the excuse of personal information errors or leaked bank account information to ask victims to use their personal mobile phones to download and install fake applications containing malicious code.

When the victim complies, the subjects temporarily take control of and use the applications on the phone, including the Internet banking application of the bank account. After that, the subjects can transfer money from the victim's account to other accounts.

For the victims' credit card information, the subjects provided it to subjects in Vietnam to use to pay for purchases on e-commerce sites, then took the purchased goods and sold them at a price cheaper than the market price, then transferred money to the scammers who provided the card information and received "commissions".

Through social networks, Nguyen Duc Vuong Trong got to know Nguyen Tung Duong and Nguyen Huu Thang and discussed "Money Laundering" (as above) for a group of scammers in Cambodia.

Trong, Duong, and Thang agreed to share the profits as follows: When the transaction is successful (ordering goods, paying with the victim's credit card information provided by the subjects in Cambodia, receiving the goods and selling them for money), 5% will be deducted for depreciation when selling the assets; 65% will be transferred to the designated accounts of the subjects in Cambodia; Trong, Thang, and Duong will each receive 10%.

At noon on January 24, 2024, the subjects in Cambodia sent Trong the credit card information of Ms. H. that these subjects had just appropriated. Immediately after that, Duong used the information that Trong sent to buy 6 mobile phones for more than 194 million VND by ordering online. After receiving the goods, Duong went online to resell the 6 phones for 175 million VND. Then, he transferred 129 million VND to the accounts of the subjects in Cambodia.

With this deal, Trong received 19 million VND, Duong received 17 million VND and Thang received 10 million VND. With the remaining available amount of about 6 million VND in the credit card, Duong made the purchase of 2 Game cards.

Using the same method, the subjects have appropriated property from many other victims. The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department is continuing to expand the investigation to clarify the case.