Fortune tellers have to change their fate and go to jail for many ways of cheating money.

At the end of November 2023, Thua Thien Hue Provincial Police prosecuted Vo Hoai Nhon (born 1995) and Nguyen Thi Huong (born 1996, both residing in Thu Duc City, Ho Chi Minh City) for property fraud.

Previously, around May 2020, due to difficult life, Huong created a Facebook social network account "Bi Nguyen" and then joined fortune telling groups with the purpose of telling fortunes for others to earn money.

After practicing fortune telling online for a while, in early 2021, through fortune telling, Huong met a person in Khe Tre town (Nam Dong district, Thua Thien Hue province).

Knowing that this person had problems in love and wanted to have their love life told, Huong "predicted" that this person was being followed by a spirit and had to perform a ritual to resolve it. After that, Huong gave this person Vo Hoai Nhon's phone number and introduced him as "Master Thinh" who specializes in dispelling spells and exorcising spirits.

Believing Huong, this person communicated with Nhon and transferred 200 million VND to perform rituals to "dispel" the following spirits.

Another case that must be mentioned is the "medium" Truong Huong, famous on social networks for her fortune-telling, "rightly admitting, wrongly arguing". This "medium" was reported to the police by the people for receiving 180 million VND to donate to sell a house, showing signs of fraud and appropriation of money.

On the afternoon of August 4, 2023, Kinh Mon Town Police, Hai Duong Province issued a decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Truong Thi Huong (born in 1986) to investigate the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" under Article 174, Clause 2, Penal Code.

Initial investigation results show that on December 6, 2022, Mr. Tran The X. and his biological mother, Ms. Vu Thi H. (born in 1967), went to Huong's house to have their fortune told, see feng shui, and learn about the difficulties in life that the family was facing.

At that time, Truong Huong "predicted" that Mr. X's house was under a spell, there were ghosts in front of the house, causing bad luck for the family, and it was necessary to perform a ritual to dispel the curse (meaning there had to be a substitute for the family), "change the fate" for the whole family...

The "spirit medium" suggested to Mr. X that the price for the house-changing ceremony, to sell the house, and to pray for peace, was 270 million VND. When the homeowner explained that his family could not afford 270 million VND, Huong reduced the price to 180 million VND.

“Shaman” Truong Huong “predicted” the victim that after the ceremony, the family would be able to sell the house around December 28, 2022. However, after waiting until the end of that day, Mr. X. was unable to sell the house, so he filed a complaint against Truong Thi Huong for fraud.

Fortune teller scammed and appropriated billions

In January 2023, the Hanoi People's Court sentenced "fortune teller" Nguyen Thi Ha (born 1971, in Dong Da district, Hanoi) to 12 years in prison for fraud and property appropriation.

Ha has two previous convictions for fraud and gambling. While waiting for the People's Court of Hoan Kiem District (Hanoi) to try him for fraud, Ha continued to commit fraud. Specifically, on February 24, 2022, Ha went to a shoe store on Ton Duc Thang Street to buy shoes and met Ms. Vu Thuy H. (born in 1994), the store manager.

Through conversation, knowing that Ms. H. was not married, Ha introduced herself as a fortune teller and "predicted" that Ms. H. was being followed by a spirit, so her love life was difficult and she needed to have a ceremony to cut off the spirit bond before she could get married.

Believing the "fortune teller", Ms. H. agreed to ask the "fortune teller" to perform a "cut off negative relationships" ceremony and transferred to Ha many times a total of more than 1.3 billion VND in cash, 2 taels of gold, and an 18k gold necklace worth more than 18 million VND.

After receiving the money from the victim, Ha did not organize the ceremony as promised and used the money to buy a motorbike, a cell phone, and lend money to relatives...

In another trial held in June 2023, the Hanoi People's Court also sentenced "fortune teller" Le Van Tinh (born 1983, in Hoai Duc) to 10 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.

The accusation is that from November 8, 2021 to January 31, 2022, Tinh introduced himself as a feng shui master who could read horoscopes and fortunes for others.

To make the victims trust and hand over their money, Tinh judged that the homeowners had "good fortune" and "real estate fortune" (meaning good fortune in real estate business), but "this fortune is stuck, they must invest money in buying and selling land to test the new real estate fortune to expand and stabilize, and earn a lot of money."

Le Van Tinh asked the "female donors" to contribute money to buy land to "open up prosperity", then sell it and return the principal and interest. After receiving the money from the victims, Tinh did not buy the land but appropriated it all for personal expenses. After appropriating the money, he fled and was arrested on December 16, 2022, according to a wanted warrant.

With the above trick, this "fortune teller" has appropriated 858 million VND from 3 victims.