Lost nearly 100 million VND because of instructions on 'increasing credit card limit'
Because she was gullible and believed the words of an impersonator who called to advise and guide her on increasing her credit card limit to receive a shopping voucher, Ms. Lan Anh provided her account number and OTP code to the subject and had nearly 100 million VND in her account stolen.
The Investigation Police Agency of Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi, said that it has just initiated a case, prosecuted the accused and issued a detention order for Phan Dinh Hung (born 2002), residing in Quang Thanh Commune, Quang Dien District, Thua Thien Hue Province, and Cao Van Tuan (born 1993), residing in Danh Thang Commune, Hiep Hoa District, Bac Giang Province, to investigate the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit acts of property appropriation".
Previously, Nam Tu Liem District Police received a report from Ms. Lan Anh, residing in Xuan Phuong Ward, Nam Tu Liem District, Hanoi, about a person calling her claiming to be a bank employee to advise and guide her on increasing her credit card limit to receive a discount voucher when making a purchase. After providing her account number and OTP code to the person, Ms. Lan Anh's account was deducted 95,159,000 VND.
Nam Tu Liem District Police urgently organized forces to coordinate with related units to verify and organize investigation activities. After a period of tracking and using synchronous professional measures, Nam Tu Liem District Police arrested two related subjects, Phan Dinh Hung and Cao Van Tuan, in Ho Chi Minh City and transferred them to the headquarters to serve the investigation.
The initial investigation determined that in early July 2023, Phan Dinh Hung participated in working in the group "Group 1TD...", on the Telegram application operated by a Chinese subject currently residing in Cambodia.
Initially, Hung was assigned to stay in Vietnam and receive orders (cell phones) from major branded cell phone stores. Then, he brought them to used cell phone stores in Ho Chi Minh City to sell for money and transfer them to people abroad. Because of the large workload, Hung hired Cao Van Tuan to pick up orders for him.
Some time later, under the guidance of the Chinese subject, Hung and Tuan were assigned by the subject to use the phone number 028xxx to contact and instruct people to upgrade their credit card levels to defraud and appropriate property.
Through investigation, it was found that the above phone numbers all used the Internet platform provided by Vietnam, but made calls and sent messages from abroad to Vietnam, impersonating customer care services of many bank branches across the country. When they instructed people to open credit cards, they actually appropriated the right to use people's personal credit cards to make purchases of assets and convert them into money to send abroad.
Nam Tu Liem District Police have clarified that with this method, the subjects have appropriated nearly 200 million VND from 3 other victims in Hanoi, Khanh Hoa, Thanh Hoa. In addition to the above cases, the subjects confessed to having appropriated from many individuals across the country, the estimated amount of money transferred abroad is up to several billion VND.
During the urgent search of the two suspects' residences, the police seized 8 iPhone 14 Promax mobile phones; 1 Samsung Galaxy S8+ mobile phone; 1 Nokia mobile phone and 1 computer system. Currently, the Investigation Police Agency of Nam Tu Liem District Police is collecting documents and verifying the victims whose property was appropriated related to the above group of subjects.
