Exposing the tricks of 'spirit medium' Phan Thu Trang to defraud more than 28 billion VND

District 5 Police (HCMC) are expanding their investigation and calling on victims who were defrauded by Phan Thi Thu Trang (born 1990) to contact them to support and assist in the investigation.

According to information from District 5 Police, Phan Thi Thu Trang, also known as "medium" Phan Thu Trang, calls herselffortune tellerand used multiple Facebook accounts such as "Phan Thu Trang", "Phong Thuy Tam Linh - Phan Thu Trang" to post advertisements for fortune telling services.

Among them, the account “Phong Thuy Tam Linh - Phan Thu Trang” attracted up to 20,000 followers with posts related to fortune telling services, selling feng shui products, horoscopes, physiognomy, resolving bad luck, and bad luck, mostly unscientific content. However, many people still trust and make appointments with Trang to have their fortune told or buy feng shui products.

Among the victims, Ms. M. (living in District 5) was scammed out of nearly 800 million VND after contacting Trang to buy medicine for incense. When they met, Trang said that Ms. M. was "possessed by a spirit" and had a lot of bad luck, claiming that "Ms. M.'s house was cursed and asked to perform a ritual to remove the curse".

After that, Trang continuously gave spiritual reasons to convince Ms. M. to transfer more money to hold the "highest offering ceremony" to resolve the bad luck, even threatening that her family would soon have a funeral or serious legal problems if she did not continue with the ceremony.

Similarly, Ms. H. (also residing in District 5) was scammed by Trang out of 2.9 billion VND. Initially, Ms. H. only contacted Trang to buy a feng shui bracelet, but after meeting her, Trang made her worry about many spiritual issues.

Trang convinced Mrs. H. to remove the curse and chase away the "ghost" to protect her family, and asked Mrs. H. to transfer money many times to perform the ritual.

Within 15 days of September 2023, Ms. H. transferred more than 2.6 billion VND to Trang. However, seeing that it was not working, Ms. H. asked for the money back. When Ms. H. asked, Trang gave the reason that she could not hold the ceremony because she was busy with many "ceremony guests" and offered to transfer another 300 million VND to continue helping to "relieve the curse".

In addition, another woman was also scammed by Trang for nearly 210 million VND after having her fortune told at the beginning of the year. Trang asked her to perform a ritual to "dispel bad luck, ward off bad luck, and ward off bad luck" along with many other reasons such as "the house was cursed, the child was born at the wrong hour, the land was in dispute, and many legal issues related to her husband".

Up to now, the police have determined that Phan Thi Thu Trang has defrauded more than 28 billion VND and more than 40 victims of this "fortune teller" have come forward to report.

On October 25, District 5 Police initiated a case and temporarily detained Phan Thi Thu Trang for "fraudulent appropriation of property".

District 5 Police request that Phan Thi Thu Trang's victims contact the District 5 Police Criminal Police Team at 359 Tran Hung Dao (Ward 10, District 5) or call investigator Le Thanh Trung at 0993.354.852 to coordinate in providing information and supporting the investigation.