Woman in Nghe An almost lost 300 million VND after hearing a phone call

On April 10, the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police said it was verifying and clarifying the report of a female trader in Vinh City about being scammed and having her property appropriated by a person claiming to be an "officer of the Ministry of Public Security".

According to Ms. T., on April 1, she received a phone call informing her that the 25.5 million VND loan from the bank was overdue for more than 2 months. The bank would sue her in court because she did not pay the overdue loan.

Ms. T. at the police station. Photo provided by the police.

Ms. T. confirmed that she did not borrow from the bank, the other end of the line said that they would contact the police to help her clarify. A moment later, there was another call to Ms. T.'s phone number.

The man identified himself as Captain Pham Tuan Anh, an investigator from the Hanoi City Police. He said she was involved in a drug ring led by Nguyen Viet Tuan (residing in Quang Ninh).

Affirming that she did not know or have any contact with the person named Tuan, the man explained to Ms. T. that it was possible that she had lost her ID card or other personal documents, so the criminal took advantage of it to do bad things.

Ms. T went online to search for Nguyen Viet Tuan and found that he was indeed a wanted person for illegal drug trafficking, so Ms. T became even more confused.

“They asked me to keep it a secret and not to give the information to anyone because it was confidential. Then they connected me to someone who was introduced as a higher-ranking person and a representative of the Hanoi People's Procuracy,” said Ms. T.

These people asked Ms. T. to declare all her savings and then transfer all the money to them to serve the investigation. If after the investigation, it is proven that the above money is not related to the criminal activities of the person named Tuan, they will return it to her.

Faced with the threats of the subjects claiming to be police and prosecutors, Ms. T. was confused, scared and did as they told her. Seeing his wife holding a savings book containing 300 million VND leaving the house in a state of panic, her husband promptly stopped her. After being encouraged by her husband, Ms. T. told the whole story.

Knowing she was scammed, this woman went to the police to stop the group from scamming many other people.

According to an investigator from the High-Tech Crime Prevention Team, Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police, the above-mentioned criminal group's tricks are not new. The unit has also disseminated a lot about the high-tech crime's fraud tricks on the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Province Police fanpage as well as on mass media. However, many people who are not vigilant still become victims of these criminals.