Real estate company's scam to swindle customers was recently busted by police.

According to Dong Nai police, they have just dismantled a fraudulent organization selling "phantom projects" run by Nguyen Van An (27 years old, General Director of Loc Phuc Company, headquartered in Tan Binh District, Ho Chi Minh City) and hundreds of his employees.

Initially, the employees confessed that, starting in June 2022, Loc Phuc Company organized the following activities..."Virtual" real estate exchangeIn Dong Nai province, they used sophisticated tactics to defraud and steal property from customers who wanted to buy beautiful houses at cheap prices.

Accordingly, Nguyen Van An established a fraudulent organization disguised as a real estate company. This organization operated very sophisticatedly, with a well-planned strategy and a hierarchical structure for each member.

Specifically, An hired over 120 employees along with 20 others posing as customers. Approximately 100 of them were students and interns working for the company. An instructed the students to use social media to find attractive houses in Ho Chi Minh City, take photos, and post them on the company's website and Chợ Tốt (a Vietnamese online marketplace) to advertise and sell to customers.

When a potential buyer requests to view a house in Ho Chi Minh City, Loc Phuc Company employees use a disposable phone number to contact the customer and arrange a meeting at a pre-arranged coffee shop.

At the meeting point, hundreds of employees and accomplices waited for customers to arrive, then herded them onto 52-seater buses with their windows covered, and drove them straight to the company's "phantom project" in Dong Nai. Along the way, employees organized games with prizes to distract the customers and prevent them from getting impatient about the long journey.

Inside the vehicle, the "sacrificial accomplices" would sit interspersed with customers, interacting with them to build rapport, then enticing and persuading them to enter into real estate transactions. The money for the "sacrificial accomplices" was all prepared by the company. Customers, seeing the "sacrificial accomplices" put down a deposit, would follow suit.

Upon arriving at the "phantom project" site set up by the company, employees present self-designed blueprints. Then, a "stooge" is tasked with accompanying the customer. At this point, company employees surround the customer, promoting a product with a value many times higher than the actual price of the land. Employees urge the customer to make a deposit, while the "stooge" manipulates the customer's psychology and builds trust.

When a customer agrees to pay a deposit of approximately 100 million VND, the company will issue a receipt. A "middleman" accomplices accompany the customer in a 7-seater car back to the company. The sales manager and other staff members then pressure the customer to pay an additional deposit of 60% - 70% of the land plot's transaction value. If the customer discovers that the land plot is worth more than its actual value and requests a refund, the staff will refuse. In case of a complaint or denouncement, the staff member who directly dealt with the customer will deactivate their SIM card and block all communication.

Using this scheme, Loc Phuc Company purchased agricultural land for a few hundred million dong, then created its own projects and advertised them for sale at 2-3 billion dong. Police estimate that the company defrauded people of approximately 20 billion dong each month. To date, this figure may have reached hundreds of billions of dong.