Virtual 'garage' and the real price of greed

Tricks of impersonating a shipping unit to appropriate property

Le Quang Vu (35 years old), residing in Son Tra ward, Da Nang city, used to work as a truck driver. Therefore, this subject understood the need for freight transport from many shop owners. With the intention of fraud, Vu pretended to be a transport unit to receive freight for those in need, then appropriated the property.

To carry out his actions, Le Quang Vu went on Facebook to find posts about hiring freight transport. After chatting, Vu agreed on a price with the owner to accept the transport. When the lessee provided the address to receive the goods, Vu would hire a shipping unit to pick up the goods and then transport them to sell for spending money. By this method, Vu committed the fraud twice.

On August 7, 2024, Le Quang Vu joined a group on social media looking for transportation and saw a post by Ms. Hoang Thi Diem H. (accountant of a company in Dong Hoi City, former Quang Binh Province). According to the posted information, this unit is looking for a unit to transport 3 rolls of color-coated cold-rolled steel from Hoang Mai Town (old), Nghe An to Dong Hoi City (old).

Le Quang Vu contacted Ms. H. to transport the above goods and she agreed to hire him for 3.6 million VND. Trusting her, Ms. H. added him on Zalo and sent him the location of the corrugated iron factory and the phone number of the warehouse owner.

After finding his “prey”, Vu contacted a scrap collector in Thai Nguyen (old) to sell the 3 rolls of corrugated iron. Once he had found a place to sell the goods, Vu continued to find and contact another transport company in Hanoi to hire him to transport the goods. Because he did not know that the corrugated iron was obtained illegally, the transport company agreed to transport the goods for 7 million VND.

At noon on August 8, Le Quang Vu went to the steel warehouse in Hoang Mai town (old) to meet the driver of the transport company. After completing the warehouse clearance procedures, Vu directed the goods to be transported to Thai Nguyen to sell for more than 150 million VND. According to the asset valuation, the total value of the 3 steel rolls that Le Quang Vu defrauded and appropriated at that time was 350 million VND.

After the success of that scam, only 1 week later, Vu committed another scam. This time, when he saw a post asking to transport more than 21 tons including 7 unwrapped cable rolls and 110 anchor sets (fixed equipment used in construction works) from a company's warehouse in Song Than Industrial Park (formerly Binh Duong) to Quang Ngai province, Vu contacted the staff, pretending to accept to transport the above goods for 13.5 million VND.

Then, through a social friend, Vu found a driver to transport the goods. That same afternoon, Vu led the driver to contact the warehouse keeper to complete the procedures for exporting the goods from the warehouse. After receiving all the goods, the driver moved north.

As soon as he got in the car, Vu immediately advertised 7 rolls of unsheathed cable for sale when a woman contacted him to buy them. When she asked about the origin of the cables, Vu said they were surplus cables from a construction site in Ho Chi Minh City and transported them to Da Nang City to sell. He showed the buyer a photo of the goods, saying they weighed 21 tons. The buyer agreed to buy the cables for more than 165 million VND.

On the afternoon of August 16, 2024, when the car arrived in Phu Yen province, an employee of the freight company called to ask about the situation. At this time, Vu lied that there were still goods on the car that had to be sent to Da Nang urgently and promised that after delivering the goods, the cable would be delivered on time. Although the company representative firmly disagreed, Vu turned off the phone and told the driver to follow his instructions and that he would take responsibility for any problems.

When the car arrived in Da Nang City, Le Quang Vu sold 7 rolls of cable and 110 sets of anchors for more than 175 million VND. Meanwhile, the authorities valued the goods at more than 442 million VND.

On August 29, 2024, Le Quang Vu was arrested by the police of Hoang Mai town (old), Nghe An province, while hiding in Thua Thien Hue province. The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money that Le Quang Vu appropriated from the victims was nearly 800 million VND.

At the time of his arrest, Vu was carrying two wanted warrants from the former Hoa Vang District Police, Da Nang City, and the former Quy Nhon City Police, Binh Dinh Province, for crimes related to property appropriation.

The end of a scammer

For the above crime, Le Quang Vu was prosecuted and brought to trial for "Fraudulent appropriation of property". At the first instance trial that just took place, the defendant admitted his crime. Regarding the motive for the crime, the defendant stated that because he did not have a stable job and wanted to have money to spend, he used the above trick to defraud the victims. The amount of money he got from selling the victims' property, the defendant said he used it for personal expenses. In addition, Vu also spent a large amount of money to buy a "luxury" phone as a gift for his girlfriend.

In court, the defendant expressed remorse for his wrongdoings. The defendant stated: “During my detention, I was fully aware that my actions were wrong and violated the law. I asked the court for a chance to correct my mistakes.” However, it seems that the defendant’s plea for correction was not sincere as Vu had repeatedly committed fraud.

In 2013, Le Quang Vu was sentenced to 5 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property". In addition, Vu was also administratively punished by the Da Nang Port Border Guard Command for theft of property.

After completing his prison sentence, Vu spent some time living in the southern provinces. However, not long after his rehabilitation, he committed property appropriation again.

When arrested for impersonating a transport unit to commit fraud, Le Quang Vu was brought to trial due to his involvement in two other cases. Accordingly, in June 2025, Le Quang Vu was sentenced to 30 months in prison by the People's Court of Hoa Vang District (old), Da Nang City for "Extortion of property". One month later, Vu was sentenced to 6 years in prison by the People's Court of Region 1 - Gia Lai for "Abuse of trust to appropriate property".

In his fourth appearance in court, the defendant appeared quite calm and accepted full responsibility before the law. The victims who attended the court demanded that the defendant return their money.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions violated the law. In this case, the defendant's committing the crime twice was an aggravating circumstance. Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced defendant Le Quang Vu to 13 years in prison. Combined with the two previous sentences, the defendant must serve a total sentence of 21 years and 6 months in prison. Receiving three sentences within four months makes Le Quang Vu's way back even more distant...