Many Nghe An residents are confused because their ATM card accounts have had their information stolen.

Stolen account

Around the end of July 2019, Vinh City Police continuously received reports from citizens that for many days, they had not made any withdrawal transactions at the bank's ATMs, but when they made transactions at the ATMs, the cards reported errors. When entering the bank, the customers were suddenly informed by the bank that their account information had been stolen. From the reports from the people, realizing that the incident had signs of crime, Vinh City Police established a Project code T919 to focus on the investigation.

3 subjects: Duong Truong Tai, Dang Thong Thong, Luyen Vu (from left to right). Photo: D.V

Vinh City Police assigned the General Investigation Team to preside over and coordinate with the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (Ministry of Public Security), the Foreign Security Department and the Criminal Police Department of Nghe An Provincial Police, and Vietinbank to concentrate forces, technical equipment and means to verify information.

Through professional measures, the Task Force identified a group of Chinese people residing in Vinh City with suspicious signs of using electronic devices installed in ATMs in Nghe An and several provinces and cities across the country to steal information about personal and organizational accounts opened at banks and then forge ATM cards for the purpose of appropriating assets.

The investigation team clarified that this group of subjects includes: Yang Chang Cai, also known as Duong Truong Tai (born in 1986), Denh Cong Cong, also known as Dang Thong Thong (born in 1990) and Lian Yu, also known as Luyen Vu (born in 1985), all residing in Jiangxi province, China.

Through the monitoring process, in early August 2019, the Task Force discovered that these subjects entered Vietnam. During this time, the subjects showed signs of committing crimes, appropriating money from many customers using ATM cards of banks located in Hai Duong and Thai Nguyen provinces. On August 19, these subjects returned to China. Only 4 days later (August 23), Dang Thong Thong and Luyen Vu entered Vietnam at Noi Bai International Airport (Hanoi City).

Here, they continued to commit crimes by stealing bank account information via ATM cards. On August 23, 2019, Duong Truong Tai also entered Vietnam but through illegal routes. The group "gathered" in Hanoi to plan together to steal bank accounts. However, they did not know that all their movements were under the police's surveillance.

Vinh City Police Department conducts crime scene investigation. Photo: PB

With the trick of not staying in one place for too long, on September 3, the three subjects took a bus to Vinh City (Nghe An). Here, they rented a room at a hotel on Nguyen Thai Hoc Street to stay. After going around Vinh City to scout the area, they chose an ATM of Vietinbank at the intersection of Duy Tan Street and Nguyen Phong Sac Street as the location to commit the crime.

Police discovered that Dang Thong Thong often left his hotel room alone, carrying a plastic bag. When he arrived at the Vietinbank transaction point, Thong pulled down his cap, entered the ATM and returned just over a minute later.

At night, Luyen Vu went to the ATM alone and very quickly, he returned and returned to the hotel. The next day, they repeated the above action. Realizing that the subjects were preparing to leave Vinh City, the Task Force met and decided to solve the case.

It only took the Chinese subjects about 1 minute to install electronic devices to collect customers' account information. Photo: Pham Bang

Sophisticated tricks

At around 12 noon on September 11, there was a knock on the door. When Dang Thong Thong opened the door, the police rushed in and caught the 3 suspects red-handed along with many important exhibits. At the scene, the task force seized 333 bank cards made in China; 3 electronic devices, 2 laptops, screwdrivers, scissors, tape, glue... The 3 suspects were taken to the police station. Here, faced with undeniable evidence, the suspects bowed their heads and admitted their crimes.

Lieutenant Colonel Pham The Anh - Head of the General Investigation Team of Vinh City Police said that among the three subjects, Duong Truong Tai was identified as the leader, mainly sitting in the hotel room to operate on the computer. Meanwhile, Dang Thong Thong and Luyen Vu were responsible for installing and removing electronic devices attached to ATMs.

These subjects chose ATMs with a large number of customers to commit crimes. Photo: PB

According to the Vinh City Police Department, the criminal methods of these subjects were extremely sophisticated. Specifically, after scouting an ATM with a large number of customers, Dang Thong Thong used a screwdriver to remove the keyboard protection panel, then attached an electronic device with a super small camera on top to record the ATM card login password. Next, Thong attached an electronic device with a super small camera to the card reader slot. This device is responsible for collecting all information about the card number, account number, bank name, amount of money, cardholder, etc.

“The installation only takes about a minute,” said an investigator, adding that they installed the devices in the late afternoon, when the number of customers is at its highest. Four to six hours later, they removed the devices to avoid detection by the bank.

After Dang Thong Thong attached electronic devices to ATMs to steal customers' passwords and personal account information, Duong Truong Tai sat in a hotel room and used a computer to collect the information and then sent it to China via the social network Wechat to a person named Ly Van.

More than 300 ATM cards were brought from China by the subjects. Photo: D.V

In China, Ly Van would decode this information, then continue to transfer it to Duong Truong Tai and his accomplices to enter into the fake ATM card they brought from China. Once the card had all the information, they would go to the ATM to withdraw all the money in the account and quickly escape to another location to erase their traces.

“In each locality, these subjects only stay for 5-7 days, at most 10 days, then move to another place. Therefore, the fight against them is very difficult,” said an investigator.

The investigation team determined that out of the 333 bank cards seized from the subjects, 319 cards had been scanned for account holder information and 14 were blank. The subjects withdrew money from the accounts of 22 cards with an amount of nearly 300 million VND.

The initial investigation determined that these subjects had successfully installed electronic devices into Vietinbank ATMs in Hung Dung Ward twice, stealing account information to use for counterfeiting bank cards to appropriate assets. However, these subjects were in the process of transmitting data to China, so it was not possible to determine how many ATM cards in Nghe An had all their money withdrawn.

They also use screwdrivers, scissors, glue... to remove screws and attach tiny electronic devices to ATMs to avoid detection. Photo: XB

According to Vinh City Police, the victims of these subjects are from many provinces, concentrated in Hanoi, Hai Duong, Thai Nguyen, and Nghe An. Previously, the Ministry of Public Security and local police arrested many cases of similar crimes, but compared to the project chaired by Vinh City Police, the number of subjects and fake ATM cards discovered was the highest.

Currently, the Vinh City Police Department is temporarily detaining three suspects, Duong Truong Tai, Dang Thong Thong, and Luyen Vu, for the crime of "Using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to commit property appropriation", as stipulated in Article 290 of the 2015 Penal Code. In addition, the police are also verifying the information of two men named Nan Kinh and Ly Van (Chinese) because they are related to this group of suspects. The investigation is currently continuing to expand.