Scamming people into buying and selling foreign currency on social media to steal money.
Dang Van Toan frequently used social media to broker the buying and selling of Japanese Yen, earning commissions or profit margins from transactions. Seeing the large sums involved and believing that clients abroad could not report him, Toan conceived the idea of embezzling over 660 million VND.
On November 25th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial to hear the case against defendant Dang Van Toan (born in 1988), residing in Tien Trang commune, Thanh Hoa province, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property"
Because he lacked a stable job, Dang Van Toan often used Facebook to run advertisements brokering the buying and selling of Japanese Yen, earning commissions from buyers and sellers, or the difference in transaction value.
On the morning of May 22, 2025, Toan received a message from someone wanting to sell 360 Japanese Yen. At the same time, Toan saw that Mr. Le Van H. (born in 1992, residing in Nghe An province) had an account that wanted to buy Japanese Yen, so he messaged him to arrange the transaction.
Mr. H. and Toan agreed to buy 362 Japanese Yen, with a total transaction value of over 660 million VND. Toan discussed this with the seller and agreed to buy it for over 655 million VND.
After agreeing on the purchase price, Toan formed a group of three people to communicate via video call and agreed on the following method of receiving payment.
The seller of Japanese Yen approached Mr. Vu Luan (a friend of Mr. H.), who is currently working in Japan, to deliver the Yen. After Mr. Luan received and counted the money, Mr. H. would transfer it to Toan to pay the seller of Japanese Yen.
After agreeing on the transaction with the parties, Toan realized the amount was large and thought that Mr. H., being in Japan, couldn't report him, so he conceived the idea of embezzling the money.
At approximately 6 PM that same day, the Japanese seller met with Mr. Luan in Japan, and Mr. Luan confirmed that he had counted enough money for the transaction. He then informed H. and Toan so they could make the payment.
Mr. H. transferred over 660 million VND to Toan's account. Immediately after receiving the money, Toan deleted the group and stopped contacting Mr. H. and the seller of the money. The man who sold the Japanese Man currency canceled the transaction because he did not receive the money.
On June 11, 2025, Mr. Le Van H. filed a complaint accusing Dang Van Toan of fraud and misappropriation of property. Two days later, Toan surrendered to the police.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. The defendant stated that because he did not have a stable job, when he saw the victim conducting a transaction involving a large sum of money, he conceived the idea of stealing it.
After embezzling the money, Toan sent 400 million VND back to his hometown to lend to a relative for house construction. In addition, the defendant also sent 40 million VND to his family to buy food and take care of family matters. At the trial, the defendant offered his apologies to the victim.
The trial panel determined that the defendant's actions violated the law. After considering all aspects of the case, the trial panel sentenced the defendant, Dang Van Toan, to 12 years in prison. Regarding civil matters, the court ordered the defendant to compensate the victim for the remaining amount owed (171 million VND).
