Nghe An: Hundreds of people lost billions of dong playing eight-way poker online

Set up hundreds of scam groups

Vinh City Police have just prosecuted and temporarily detained Tran Thi Phuong Thuy (born in 1984), residing in Block 2, Truong Thi Ward (Vinh City) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" prescribed in Clause 4, Article 174, Penal Code.

Subject Tran Thi Thuy. Photo: BN

This is a subject with large-scale fraud behavior with many sophisticated tricks. This "monster" thoroughly takes advantage of relationships to lure acquaintances to participate in online gambling groups owned by Thuy.

After gaining the trust of the victims, Thuy used the fake accounts she created to bid for the auction. After several auctions, when Thuy's fake accounts won many times in the auction, Thuy declared "breaking the auction" to seize the property.
Typically, on August 8, 2021, Thuy opened a ward with 12 participating slots via her Facebook account. During the ward establishment process, Thuy did not notify or register with the competent authority and did not organize a meeting of the ward members. Thuy only joined a chat group via Facebook's Messenger application to discuss and bid for the ward opening. Of the 12 participating slots, 2 slots were virtual accounts created by Thuy.
When she realized that the "prey" had fallen into the trap, Thuy started to conduct the auctions with the amount of 100 million VND/1 match. Before the match, each player had to pay Thuy the amount of 2 first matches, equivalent to 200 million VND. Because Thuy was the match leader, she would receive the first match of 1.1 billion VND without having to compete.

After that, Thuy organized a tournament for the participants to collect interest. Whoever bids with the highest interest rate will receive the tournament but must pay interest to the unsuccessful bidder. On August 8, 2021, Thuy organized a tournament to get the second slot in the Facebook chat group. In this slot, the account "Khanh Linh" created and used by Thuy "won" with the highest interest of 7,450,000 VND and received 1.2 billion VND. "Khanh Linh" had to pay interest for the remaining 11 slots with the amount of 7,450,000 VND/slot. Thus, in this second tournament, "Khanh Linh" received 1,118,050,000 VND.

3 days later, on August 11, 2021, Thuy organized a ward auction to get the 3rd slot. Each participant had to pay Thuy 92,550,000 VND. The account "Khanh Linh" had already received the 2nd slot, so it still had to pay the full amount of 100 million VND without receiving interest from the next auctions. In this auction, the account "Moon Dinh" created and used by Thuy "won" with the highest interest of 4,000,000 VND and was given the 3rd slot: 1.2 billion VND - (4 million VND x 10) = 1.16 billion VND.
On August 14, 2021, Thuy organized a ward auction to get the 4th place. Each participant had to pay Thuy 96 million VND. Accounts "Khanh Linh" and "Moon Dinh" had already received the previous ward prizes, so they still had to pay the full amount of 100 million VND without receiving interest from the next auctions. In this auction, account "Thu Huong Nguyen" won the highest interest of 4,750,000 VND and was awarded the 4th place: 1.2 billion VND - (4,750,000 VND x 9) = 1,157,250,000 VND.

Stealing player's propertyi
Just like that, Thuy organized 3 more auctions to open the ward. On August 24, 2021, Tran Thi Phuong Thuy declared that the ward was "broken" and would not organize the auction for participants who had not received the ward's money. In this ward, after 7 auctions, the first 3 times Thuy and the virtual accounts created and used by Thuy "won the ward". The 4 "winners" in the following auctions were all friends who Thuy lured to participate with the promise of "huge" interest. Of course, after the "breakdown", Thuy was slow and "stalled" every time you asked to transfer both principal and interest.

Officers of the Criminal Police Department of Vinh City Police took the statement of suspect Tran Thi Phuong Thuy. Photo: BN

The Vinh City Police Investigation Agency is expanding the investigation, working with the victim, collecting evidence, and continuing to prove the suspect's criminal behavior.
Talking to reporters, an investigator from the Criminal Police Team - Vinh City Police said: Fraud in opening a lottery is not new, but because the tricks of the subjects are very sophisticated, many people still fall into the trap. Moreover, in the epidemic conditions, many people have to do business online or stay at home, with limited income, so they have the mentality of "earning more" from the interest rate of the lottery. Many people who participated in several auctions to open a lottery were suspicious, however, because they had already paid a lot of money to the auction, with the mentality of "having to go in, having to go in", "while there is life, there is hope", the damage kept multiplying with each auction. Only when Thuy declared "the auction broke" did many people bitterly and heartbrokenly realize that they had been scammed, even many families fell into quarrels and conflicts.
A common situation nowadays is that many people abuse social networks; all information, images, and activities of families and individuals are "uploaded" to Facebook.

Taking advantage of this, scammers have exploited information and created seemingly close relationships to lure victims into traps. The police agency recommends that everyone should be careful when posting information on social networks. In particular, they must absolutely stay away from invitations to join guilds, savings and credit associations, contribute capital, invest in finance, invest in virtual currency, etc.
Currently, the provincial police leadership is directing professional units to continue to investigate and expand the case; focusing on clarifying Tran Thi Phuong Thuy's loan sharking behavior. The police agency informed that anyone who is a victim of Tran Thi Phuong Thuy should contact the Criminal Police Team - Vinh City Police to coordinate the investigation.