Fraudulently selling vintage cars online and then appropriating nearly 1.2 billion VND

Previously, through professional work, Vinh Loc District Police discovered unusual signs from the fanpage "Duy Chuan xe co" and zalo page "Tong Duy Chuan", so they established and mobilized experienced investigators to focus on investigating and verifying.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Do Manh Dung - Deputy Chief of Vinh Loc District Police, the Facebook and Zalo pages "Tri Anh Xe Co", or "Duy Chuan Xe Co"... are all posted by the subjects with names, images, business licenses and even bank account numbers that match the online sales accounts. After posting car sales posts, these subjects buy interactions, comments with reviews confirming the reputation of the sellers, making many people who want to buy cars when they come to find out will believe that these pages are reputable addresses. However, through investigation, people like Tong Duy Chuan, or Tri Anh in real life do not own or use these online car sales addresses.

After a period of active investigation, the Task Force quickly collected documents and evidence and identified Tran Thanh Ngoc (born in 1993), residing in Lang Chau Bac village, Duy Phuoc commune, Duy Xuyen district, Quang Nam province, as the person operating and using the accounts "Duy Chuan antique car", "Tong Duy Chuan", or "Tri Anh antique car". On September 14, the Task Force assigned 3 working groups to the southern provinces to continue verifying, clarifying the methods of operation and arresting the subjects.

When there was sufficient evidence, on September 16, determining that the time to solve the case was ripe, the Task Force simultaneously deployed forces to arrest the subjects Tran Thanh Ngoc and Nguyen Van Hoan. Searching the subjects' residences and workplaces, the Task Force seized 6 Facebook accounts named "Tong Duy Chuan", "Duy Chuan xe co"; "Tri Anh xe co"; "Tri Anh xe co bai nhat", "Tran Thanh Ngoc", "Hoan Hoan"; 4 Zalo accounts all named "Tong Duy Chuan", 3 Binance virtual currency trading accounts, 11 bank accounts, 1 momo account; 12 phone sim cards of various types; 13 mobile phones; 20 million VND in cash and many other related exhibits.

According to police documents, Tran Thanh Ngoc has many criminal records. After being released from prison and returning to his hometown, with his lazy and playful nature, Ngoc went online to buy fake Facebook and Zalo accounts, ID cards, business licenses... to use as means and tools for fraud.

Notably, after purchasing the Facebook account “Tong Duy Chuan” along with the Citizen ID card image, Business License and Zalo account all under the name “Tong Duy Chuan”, born in 1986, residing in residential group 1, Bac Cuong, Lao Cai city, Lao Cai province, Tran Thanh Ngoc bought more “junk” phone SIM cards to create Zalo accounts also named “Tong Duy Chuan”, bought “junk” bank accounts and asked others to register virtual currency accounts, momo wallets... to serve the fraudulent behavior.

From the Facebook account “Tong Duy Chuan”, Tran Thanh Ngoc created the fanpages “Duy Chuan old cars”; “Tri Anh old cars”; “Tri Anh old cars from Japanese yards”, then uploaded pictures of old Cup, 67, Dream, CD cars online to advertise for sale at prices ranging from 17 to 60 million VND. The posts for sale by the subject all included pictures of old motorbikes with beautiful designs, reasonable prices and ran ads online to increase interaction and easily find victims.

When someone is interested in a classic car, Tran Thanh Ngoc uses an automatic message to ask the buyer to provide a phone number, then the exchange and sale of classic cars is through the zalo account "Tong Duy Chuan".

If the customer agrees to buy the car, the subject will require a deposit of 3 to 10 million VND depending on the type of car and will make an appointment for the buyer to pay the remaining amount when receiving the car. After receiving the deposit, Tran Thanh Ngoc will cut off all contact, block messages, delete friends, then transfer the fraudulent money into Bitcoin virtual currency, then buy and sell it many times to convert the fraudulent money into legal money before withdrawing it to cash to spend.

According to Tran Thanh Ngoc’s statement to the police, he was also passionate about vintage cars before, so he ordered one online and was scammed. Later, due to his debt, he remembered the tricks that the subjects had used to trick him before, so he imitated them to scam others to appropriate property.

The accomplice who actively assisted Tran Thanh Ngoc was Nguyen Van Hoan (born in 1995), residing in Bon Bu N'Drung, Dak Buk So commune, Tuy Duc district, Dak Nong province. This subject has 4 previous convictions for "Theft of property" and has served time in prison with Tran Thanh Ngoc.

After being released from prison and returning to his hometown, due to not having a stable job, Nguyen Van Hoan was hired by Tran Thanh Ngoc to buy “junk” bank accounts, find people to use virtual currency accounts and momo wallets as tools for committing crimes, directly withdraw cash and do some other tasks as requested by Ngoc. Every month, Hoan is paid 10 million VND by Ngoc and “bonus” if he defrauds many victims.

The police agency has clarified that, in addition to Nguyen Van Hoan, Tran Thanh Ngoc also hired a number of people with information technology skills to help him buy and sell virtual currency, and convert virtual currency into Vietnamese Dong for the purpose of money laundering and concealing his criminal activities.

Initially, Vinh Loc District Police determined that Tran Thanh Ngoc and his accomplices had defrauded and appropriated property from over 200 victims across the country with a total amount of nearly 1.2 billion VND.