Hacking a foreign student's Facebook, a 9x youth embezzled more than 650 million VND

On January 22, 2019, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial of Phan Anh Tuan (residing in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province) for the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts of property appropriation".

Defendant Phan Anh Tuan at the first instance trial. Photo: Quynh An.

According to the indictment, around February 2018, Phan Anh Tuan (born in 1997, residing in Trieu Thuong commune, Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province) learned through the internet and internet cafes in Quang Tri province how to hack into Facebook accounts, collect personal information that users posted publicly, and then used that information to try to log into their accounts.

Around March 2018, Tuan rented a room in Hoa Khanh Ward, Lien Chieu District, Da Nang City to look for a job. At first, because he had no money to spend, Tuan came up with the idea of ​​using his knowledge to access the social network Facebook to scam.

Most of Tuan's tricks in his operations are to use personal information found from users and then hack into their accounts to send fraudulent messages to steal property from relatives. Tuan's targets are usually Vietnamese people studying in Japan to avoid being exposed.

Phan Anh Tuan and Ho Van Duc with evidence at the investigation agency. Photo: Nhat Tuan

In order to find “tools” to carry out business “deals”. First, Tuan hacked into the “Mai Co” account of Ms. Le Thi Mai (born in 1996), who is currently studying in Japan. Then, Tuan impersonated Ms. Mai to text her friend, Mr. Le Trong Khoa (born in 1993, residing in Thieu Hoa district, Thanh Hoa) to ask him to make an ATM card of Sacombank in Mr. Khoa’s name and register for internet banking using Tuan’s phone number.

With the above trick, Tuan also successfully impersonated Ms. Nguyen Thi Hoai (born in 1996, currently in Japan) to ask Ms. Nguyen Thi Thao to make another bank card under the name Nguyen Thi Thao and also registered another phone number of Tuan.

After obtaining 2 bank cards to serve the fraud, in just the period from March 6, 2018 to April 16, 2018, Phan Anh Tuan consecutively successfully carried out 16 different business "transactions". Appropriating a total amount of nearly 653 million VND.

Tuan used the same trick in all the scams. He used the excuse that his friend’s mother was sick, paying for school fees or paying for work visa insurance to urgently need a large sum of money. From there, even though his family had no money, they still had to borrow money to pay for their children.

After successfully tricking the victim's family into sending money, Tuan immediately used his computer to access the electronic bank and make a withdrawal request through his phone number. Then he went to local banks to withdraw money for personal use.

Currently, the defendant and his family have only compensated nearly 113 million VND to the victims.

The panel of judges determined: This is a dangerous act for society and needs to be severely punished. However, considering the mitigating circumstances, seeing that the defendant repented and regretted his actions, and had partially remedied the consequences he caused, the panel of judges decided to sentence defendant Phan Anh Tuan to 8 years in prison for the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts of property appropriation".

The court also requested the defendant to pay civil compensation to the victims, a total of nearly 450 million VND for the remaining victims.