Nghe An: Pretending to be a financial company employee on Zalo, defrauded and appropriated 160 million VND

On the afternoon of January 31, the Nghi Loc District Police Investigation Agency announced that the unit had successfully broken Project 119L, arresting Pham Van Nguyen (born in 1991), residing in Hung Phuc Commune, Hung Nguyen District, for using high technology to defraud and appropriate 160 million VND from many victims.

Subject Pham Van Nguyen (left) at the investigation agency. Photo: Nhat Tuan

Previously, Nghi Loc District Police received a complaint from Ms. Nguyen Thi T in Nghi Cong Bac Commune that from August to October 2018, she was scammed by a person with Zalo named Long Binh, introduced as Long, working at a financial company via Zalo, appropriating 84 million VND. Examining the case, the subject used high technology to appropriate a large amount of money from the victim, so the leaders of Nghi Loc District Police established Project 119L to fight.

Evidence related to the case. Photo: Nhat Tuan

Urgently using professional measures, the 119L Task Force quickly identified Pham Van Nguyen as the perpetrator of the above fraud. On January 30, the subject was arrested. At the investigation agency, Nguyen confessed to his crime.

Accordingly, since May 2018, Pham Van Nguyen used the phone number 0948518587 to register a zalo account under the name Hoang Long, then changed his name to Long Binh and posted many information and advertising images on zalo diary to show that he was a person operating in the field of lending and financial support with very simple lending procedures.

At the same time, the subject searched for and made friends with many people, looking for people who needed to borrow money to scam. When someone contacted him to ask for a loan, the subject introduced himself as Long, working at a financial company affiliated with a bank and pretended to guide him through the loan procedure very simply, such as just sending a photo of the household registration book and ID card via zalo account to make a loan application.

12 gas cylinders used to inflate laughing gas balloons were discovered in Nguyen's rented room. Photo: Nhat Tuan

After the victim trusted him and sent him information, Nguyen told the victim to transfer 3 to 5 million VND to him to send to the staff to process the quick disbursement procedure. When the victim agreed, the subject borrowed a friend's bank account on zalo and instructed the victim to transfer the money. Then, Nguyen asked the friend to withdraw the cash and give it directly to the subject at the meeting point or asked the friend to transfer it to another bank, then tried to steal it.

In August 2018, when he learned that Ms. Nguyen Thi T. in Nghi Cong Bac commune wanted to borrow 200 million VND, Nguyen repeatedly asked Ms. T. to transfer money to him. Because she was afraid of losing the previous deposit, Ms. T. agreed to send more money the next time according to Nguyen's request. The total amount of money that Ms. T. transferred to the subject from August to October 2018 was 84 million VND. Using the same method, during this time, Pham Van Nguyen also defrauded Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc A. in Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province and some other people. The total amount of money that the subject defrauded and appropriated from the victims was 160 million VND.

After arresting and searching Pham Van Nguyen's rented room in Block 2, Cua Nam Ward (Vinh City), the authorities also discovered 12 gas cylinders used to inflate laughing gas balloons. Currently, Nghi Loc District Police are continuing to investigate Pham Van Nguyen's behavior of fraud, appropriation of money, and possession of addictive substances.

The investigation agency (Nghi Loc District Police) informs anyone who has been scammed by the subject who appropriated money via phone number 0948518587 and zalo named Long Binh as above, please report to the agency's investigator at phone number: 0989112789.