Bought 80,000 Facebook accounts to bombard with scam messages

From tens of thousands of stolen Facebook accounts, the scam group carried out a campaign of bombarding thousands of people with messages offering "500% discount on scratch card value".

The group of young people who scammed phone card promotions to appropriate property included Nguyen Tung Duong (19 years old, in Soc Son, Hanoi) and 3 suspects all under 30 years old. They have just been prosecuted by the Hanoi City Police Investigation Agency for the crime of using computer networks, telecommunications networks, the Internet or digital devices to commit acts of appropriation of property.

Nguyen Tung Duong. Photo: TH

During the 2016 Lunar New Year, the Hanoi City Police Department of High-Tech Crime Prevention discovered that Duong and his accomplices had created six websites to commit fraud by posting promotional information about phone card top-up promotions.

To make more people aware of this spam message, Duong spent money to buy 80,000 Facebook accounts that were taken over by hackers. After that, the four young men carried out a campaign of bombarding the friends list of the stolen Facebook accounts with messages.

Depending on the time, this group composes scam messages with appropriate content to trap Facebook users. For example, on April 30, Duong and his accomplices released the message: "On the occasion of April 30, 2015, all 3 network operators simultaneously organize a card top-up promotion program for employees working in the 3 network operators through the online payment website system. When you top up your card on the system, you will receive a 10 times card top-up promotion..."

Message from scam website.

In the message, the scam group claiming to be the Vietnamese Ministry of Telecommunications offered a 500% top-up card value bonus, instructed Facebook account holders on how to access the scam website, and asked them to refer it to their relatives.

Police determined that Duong created 8 accounts on a payment gateway system, integrated into websites that scammed scratch cards. When Facebook users loaded cards, virtual money was automatically loaded into the above accounts. Duong then found a way to convert virtual money into real money.

So far, the police have determined that Nguyen Tung Duong and his accomplices have appropriated 463 million VND, of which 312 million VND has been withdrawn in cash.

According to Zing.vn