Group of young people 'coordinate' to hijack social media accounts to commit fraud

The Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (CTC) of Quang Nam Province Police said that it has just coordinated with functional forces to successfully eradicate a group specializing in taking over the use of Facebook and Zalo user accounts to send messages to many people in the contact list to borrow money and appropriate property.

According to initial investigation results, through the work of grasping the situation on cyberspace, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Terrorism using CNC discovered that recently many Facebook and Zalo users had their accounts hijacked, then the subjects used these accounts to text many people in their contacts to borrow money and appropriate property.

Specifically, from February 17-19, in Quang Nam province, Zalo accounts registered with phone numbers 0xxx707099, 0xxx855117, 0xxx717838, 0xxx544417 were found to have been hijacked, causing panic among people and affecting local security and order.

Le Minh Duc and Le Vu Phong at the police station.

On February 22, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Crime Using CNC proactively reported and proposed to the Director of Quang Nam Provincial Police to develop a plan to coordinate with Department 6 - Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Crime Using CNC, professional units under Quang Nam Provincial Police, Da Nang City Police, Quang Tri Provincial Police to quickly deploy professional measures, verify, and collect documents.

On March 1, two suspects, Le Minh Duc (born in 2004, residing in Quang Tri province) and Nguyen Thi Tuyet (born in 2002, residing in Quang Tri province) were summoned to investigate and clarify the case. During the investigation, Duc confessed that he was instructed by Le Vu Phong (born in 2004, from Quang Tri town, Quang Tri province) to provide a bank account to receive the scammed money, in return Duc received 20% of the money. Nguyen Thi Tuyet was the person Duc asked to register the bank account, Tuyet did not know about Duc's activities.

To conceal his actions, Duc used many different bank accounts, which were purchased on private groups for 2.5 million VND.

Deploying professional measures, the police agency determined that Le Vu Phong was currently present in Thanh Khe district, Da Nang city, so they summoned this subject. During the investigation, it was determined that Phong was the subject who took over the right to use Facebook and Zalo accounts to appropriate property.

Fighting with Duc and Phong, the Investigation Agency identified 4 other subjects in the group who also took over Facebook and Zalo administration rights to defraud and appropriate property, including: Nguyen Huu Nhan (born 2002), Do Hoai Nam (born 2001), Le Van Phu (born 1995), Hoang Thanh Duoc (born 1996), all subjects have addresses in Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri.

In order to promptly combat and handle the behavior of the subjects according to the law, on the night of March 1, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and Criminal Investigation using CNC of Quang Nam Provincial Police and Department 6 - Department of Cyber ​​Security and Criminal Investigation using CNC agreed to send a working group to Quang Tri, coordinating with the functional forces of Quang Tri Provincial Police to summon the above 4 subjects.

During the investigation, the subjects all admitted to their crimes. They took over Facebook and Zalo accounts and then tricked the victims into transferring money to the account provided by Le Minh Duc.

In just a very short period of time from January 2023 to present, the subjects in the group have taken over the use of many Facebook and Zalo accounts, defrauding hundreds of victims nationwide (including victims in Quang Nam province) with a total of money transfers into accounts of up to nearly 2 billion VND.

As a result of the investigation, the police seized 10 phones, 2 computers, 15 bank cards and many documents and electronic data related to the subjects' actions.

After consolidating the case, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Crime using CNC of Quang Nam Provincial Police has decided to prosecute the criminal case of "Illegal intrusion into computer networks, telecommunications networks or electronic devices of others" and "Fraudulent appropriation of property" to continue investigating and handling according to the provisions of law.

The leader of the Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Cyber ​​Crime of Quang Nam Province Police said that this is a typical case, and that they have coordinated with the Quang Nam Provincial Procuracy from the beginning and agreed to prosecute the organizer Le Vu Phong according to regulations; continue to coordinate with the Procuracy to consolidate records and documents, and handle the subjects according to the law.

During the investigation, it was found that the subjects were very young (18-20 years old), knowledgeable about information technology; their methods and tricks were extremely sophisticated, professional, and group-like. The subjects were highly vigilant, constantly changing locations and equipment (the subjects chose to operate in public places such as Internet cafes, coffee shops, etc.), and used fake accounts to avoid being monitored by authorities.

Security Agency working with Le Minh Duc.

However, with the spirit of striving to overcome difficulties, applying a series of technical and professional measures, and smooth coordination between units, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Crime using CNC of Quang Nam Provincial Police in coordination with Department 6 - Department of Cyber ​​Security and Anti-Crime using CNC, the judicial unit of Quang Nam Provincial Police, Da Nang City Police, Quang Tri Provincial Police arrested all the subjects in the group of 6 subjects led by Le Vu Phong, promptly preventing illegal acts.

The case is being used by the Department of National Security and Criminal Investigation of Quang Nam Province Police to continue collecting records and documents to serve the investigation and expand the case.