Dozens of women had their property taken away while buying goods via Facebook

Discovering a Facebook page selling products online that was very popular, Duc Anh immediately created a fake account. After that, with a few more enticements, this young man and his accomplices easily appropriated hundreds of millions of dong.

During the trial on September 25, both defendants confessed their crimes as stated in the indictment. The defendants’ statements were also completely consistent with the victims’ statements as well as the documents collected by the police. Therefore, the Hanoi People’s Court of First Instance affirmed that the defendants had committed the crime of “Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, the Internet or digital devices to appropriate property”.

With the above judgment, the Hanoi Court has sentenced Nguyen Duc Anh (born in 1994) and Nguyen The Dung (born in 1993), both residing in Bach Cu village, Ninh Khang commune, Hoa Lu, Ninh Binh, to 5 years in prison and 3 years in prison, respectively, according to the charges brought against them. The victims of these two IT-savvy individuals are dozens of women, mostly living in Hanoi.

Defendant Nguyen Duc Anh (right) and his accomplices in court.

One day in late November 2014, while surfing the Internet at a game shop in Ninh Binh, Nguyen Duc Anh discovered a Facebook account named “Mai Thao Bong” owned by Trinh Thu Huyen (living in Hanoi) selling handbags and shoes, attracting many women to place orders. The “initiative” sparked, and the subject immediately created a fake Facebook account from the email[email protected].

To gain the victim’s trust, Duc Anh copied all the information on Ms. Huyen’s real Facebook and “pasted” it onto the fake Facebook he created. Duc Anh then added words to lure customers by saying that due to technical problems, the owner of the real Facebook was forced to move online shopping to a new address.

Mistaking the owner of the genuine handbag and shoe seller for a new address, dozens of women immediately ordered online from Duc Anh. And then, every time a customer clicked to buy an item, the subject asked them to pay in advance, through a bank account.

When the unwary women transferred money to the bank, Duc Anh would directly or through someone else use his ATM card to withdraw the money and appropriate it. By that method, by the end of March 2015, Nguyen Duc Anh had appropriated more than 120 million VND from 10 women.

Although Nguyen The Dung did not directly defraud the victims, he actively assisted the mastermind. Specifically, he borrowed accounts and ATM cards from many acquaintances, then gave them to Duc Anh to use to withdraw money from many banks transferred by the victims.

According to Capital Security