Buying virtual land from 'super scammers', many people fall into debt

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The trial of defendant Nguyen Thi Thao (32 years old), residing in Khanh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" took place on a hot sunny day. Because she was raising a small child, Thao was released on bail and came to court alone. Looking at Thao's small figure, no one would have thought that this young woman had come up with deceitful tricks to defraud many people and appropriate large sums of money.

In the victim's row, most of them were men, much older than the defendant, but because of their subjectivity, they fell into the "super scammer's" trap.

Thao's fraudulent method was to provide false information in the land purchase and sale, such as promising to find a co-buyer, accepting to do the transfer procedures, choosing beautiful land, taking to see land of unknown ownership, showing photos of the land map taken from the internet... Then, Thao asked some acquaintances to pretend to be the land owner or the land owner's children to help Thao receive the deposit.

The investigation agency determined that from May 27, 2021 to January 24, 2022, Thao had appropriated the land purchase deposits of 4 victims 8 times, with a total amount of 1.5 billion VND. Among them, there were victims who were scammed by Thao up to 3 times, such as Mr. Nguyen Van T. (45 years old), in Yen Thanh. The first time was at the end of November 2021, when a friend who often bought real estate invited him to invest in a plot of land introduced by Thao, Mr. T. agreed. These two people met Thao to see the land. At this time, Thao took Mr. T. and his friend to see a plot of land of unknown ownership, saying the price was nearly 1.2 billion VND. When the customer asked to meet the landowner to discuss and sign a deposit contract, Thao immediately called a friend to ask him to receive the land sale deposit. Later that afternoon, the two parties signed a deposit contract, and Mr. T. transferred 200 million VND in land deposit.

A few days later, Thao continued to sell a plot of land in Ly Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district to Mr. T. for more than 700 million VND. Thao showed the customer a picture of the land map that she downloaded from the internet to her phone. Then, Thao took the customer to see a plot of land that she did not know who owned. Trusting him, Mr. T. transferred a deposit of 50 million VND.

The third time was on January 3, 2022, when a business partner invited Mr. T. to invest in a plot of land in Khanh Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district, introduced by Nguyen Thi Thao, Mr. T. agreed to buy. Using the same trick as before, Thao sent a photo of the land map downloaded online via Zalo for Mr. T. to see and said the selling price of the land plot was 2.1 billion.

The customer trusted Thao so he did not go to see the land or the land title, but only asked to meet the landowner to make a contract. Thao called a friend and lied that the land belonged to his uncle and asked him to sell it and asked this person to receive the deposit for him. After that, the buyer agreed to transfer the deposit to buy the land of 200 million VND. The total amount of 450 million VND that Thao had appropriated from Mr. T. was used by Thao to gamble on virtual money and lost all of it.

After committing a series of frauds to appropriate land deposits, Nguyen Thi Thao fled the area and cut off contact with the victims. As for the victims, when they realized they had been scammed, they filed a complaint against Thao for her fraud to the police.

At the trial, the defendant stated that he worked as a real estate broker, but due to losses and debt from playing virtual currency online, he came up with the idea of ​​defrauding many people. The defendant stated that he is currently unable to pay the debt but promised to earn money to pay it back after his release from prison.

Lessons for the victims

Speaking in court, the victims shared that they did not expect to be scammed by the defendant. The victims stated that the defendant's fraudulent behavior had greatly affected their lives. Many people were in debt, suffering economic and mental losses due to the loss of large sums of money. Therefore, the victims requested that the defendant be strictly tried.

In addition, the victim also requested the panel of judges to consider the role of Thao's accomplices in signing the deposit contract and receiving the victims' deposits. One victim stated at the trial that "We lost money because we were too trusting, buying land without going to see the land, that was our mistake. However, we request the court to consider the role of accomplices in helping the defendant in signing and receiving the land deposit."

Regarding this issue, the court determined that these people were Thao’s friends, relatives, and neighbors, and due to their poor legal awareness, they did not know what the defendant was doing. After receiving the money, they immediately transferred the entire amount of money they had received to Thao, did not benefit from it, and filed a complaint against Thao with the Yen Thanh District Police Department, so there was not enough basis to handle the case.

Regarding the defendant's criminal behavior, the panel of judges determined that the behavior was an especially serious case, not only infringing on the property rights of others protected by law but also seriously affecting the lives, causing panic among the people, if not discovered in time, the defendant could have defrauded many other people. Considering the case comprehensively, the panel of judges sentenced Nguyen Thi Thao to 15 years in prison.

Although the defendant had to pay for his fraud with a 15-year prison sentence, the case is also a warning lesson for many people in real estate trading. Because sometimes the subjectivity of the buyer has unintentionally helped bad guys like Nguyen Thi Thao commit fraud./.