Nghe An: Arresting a group of young people who cheated on lottery predictions

On the evening of March 11, the Investigation Police Agency of Nghi Loc District Police announced that the unit had just presided over and coordinated with Vinh City Police and Quynh Luu District Police to successfully crack a case and arrest 8 suspects.use high technology, fraud and appropriation of property. Confiscated evidence includes 6 computer sets, 20 credit cards, 110 million VND in cash, 4 cars and related objects and documents.

According to documents from the investigation agency: in early 2021, through cyber reconnaissance work, Nghi Loc District Police discovered a number of subjects showing signs of fraud by creating or renting YouTube channels, claiming to have the ability to "predict" and predict lottery results to thereby appropriate money from people who are addicted to gambling.

The subjects in the case were arrested. Photo:Nhat Tuan

Through screening, the investigation agency discovered the following suspects: Truong Thi Ngoc (born in 1994), residing in Dien Lam commune, Dien Chau district; Tran Van Thao (born in 1993); Tran Van Hieu (born in 1994); Tran Van Trong (born in 1998); Phan Van Bac (born in 1990); Phan Van Tuan (born in 1993); Tran Van Dinh (born in 1996); Tran Van Viet (born in 1998), all residing in Ngoc Son commune, Quynh Luu district, showing suspicious signs.

In-depth research shows that these subjects operate very professionally with extremely sophisticated tricks, defrauding victims across the country with huge amounts of money, causing many consequences for society.

Faced with that situation, under the direct direction of the provincial police, Nghi Loc district police established a special project to combat and eradicate this fraud ring. The project team mobilized 30 officers and soldiers to monitor the movements of the subjects, and went to localities across the country to verify, search for, and identify the victims. After 3 months of verification, the project team determined that there was enough evidence to solve the case, arrest the subjects, and seize the evidence for handling according to regulations.

At 3:00 p.m. on March 10, the Investigation Committee identified the subjects: Tran Van Thao, Tran Van Hieu, Tran Van Trong, Phan Van Bac, Phan Van Tuan, Tran Van Dinh and Tran Van Viet were present at rooms 1302 and 1907, Vincentra Hotel, No. 02, Quang Trung Street, Vinh City.

The task force simultaneously inspected these two rooms. Thereby, it was discovered that the 7 subjects mentioned above were present and were committing crimes. At the scene, the authorities seized 6 computer systems and tools to create YouTube channels, 13 mobile phones, 15 credit cards with an account balance of approximately 11 billion VND and 35 million VND in cash, 4 cars and many other related documents.

At the same time, another task force arrested Truong Thi Ngoc while she was traveling from Dien Chau district to Vinh city. Searching the suspects' residence, the task force seized another mobile phone, 5 credit cards with an account balance of about 4 billion VND; 75 million VND in cash.

At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed: since the beginning of 2019, the subjects created or rented YouTube channels, then posted "lottery prediction" videos for customers to follow. After the Northern lottery results were available, the subjects used computers and microphones to make videos commenting on the lottery results that day, predicting the winning numbers of the next day with attractive advertisements such as: "high accuracy rate", "sure to win".

In the content and description of the video, the subjects provide their phone numbers for customers to contact. For customers who want to buy these numbers, after contacting via Zalo, the subjects will ask them to pay money into their bank accounts. These are the accounts that the subjects bought online to serve the fraud. Using the above tricks, the subjects have defrauded and appropriated from thousands of victims across the country with a total amount of about 15 billion VND.

Currently, Nghi Loc District Police are expanding the investigation and informing anyone who is a victim in the above cases to contact the police investigation agency via phone number 0896433222, 0943282726 for instructions on how to resolve the case.