Two sisters created a fake fanpage for a tourist establishment and scammed over 500 people.
By impersonating hotel fanpages, sisters Quách Thị Thu and Quách Thị Thu Hằng defrauded over 500 tourists of 2 billion VND.
Accordingly, through investigation, the Criminal Police Department of Lao Cai Provincial Police discovered many fake fanpages impersonating hotels and villas in Sa Pa ward, Lao Cai province. The perpetrators' tactic was to receive deposits in order to commit fraud.misappropriation of propertyof many tourists throughout the country.
Through investigative measures, authorities identified Quách Thị Thu Hằng (born in 2001, residing in residential area 3, Tân Dân ward, Thanh Hóa province) and her older sister Quách Thị Thu (born in 1998, residing in Lập Ái village, Song Giang commune, Gia Bình district, Bắc Ninh province) as the individuals using a fake fanpage to defraud people of their money.
On July 9th, the police simultaneously conducted inspections, summoned 15 individuals and related persons for questioning, searched and seized 7 mobile phones, 14 used SIM cards, 150 million VND, 11 gold rings, along with many other items, documents, notebooks, and electronic data related to the fraudulent activities.
At the Police Investigation Agency, Quach Thi Thu and Quach Thi Thu Hang confessed that, due to a lack of personal funds and their previous experience as hotel booking agents, they conceived the idea of defrauding tourists.
To carry out their plan, Thu and Hang purchased and used fake fan pages bearing the names of hotels and villas nationwide, along with 18 bank account numbers and numerous phone numbers from various mobile network providers. Their modus operandi involved contacting tourists via the fan pages to book rooms, providing fake bank account numbers, and requiring a 50% deposit to secure the reservation. Once they received the deposit, they would block communication and embezzle the money.
To conceal their criminal activities, after successfully defrauding customers, the two suspects would delete the old fan pages and create new, similar ones to continue their criminal activities. Using this method, Hang and Thu defrauded more than 500 tourists of a total of over 2 billion VND.
