Female 'fake director' swindles people out of money to work abroad, travel cheaply, high success rate

Trick“low price, high success rate”

Tran Thi Hang Nga (41 years old), residing in Dien Chau commune (former Dien Ngoc commune), Nghe An, has a high school education. Since 2021, due to business losses and debt pressure, Nga has had the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating property by promising to send people to work abroad in countries around the world.

To legitimize the fraud, Tran Thi Hang Nga established a company with an address in Hanoi, with herself as the director. In reality, this was just an office rented by the hour, with only one set of tables and chairs, no computers, printers, documents, and no employees.

Although the company does not have the function or duty to send people to work, travel, or study abroad, this subject still provided information that the company had successfully sent many workers abroad. After receiving the documents from the victim, Nga sent some documents and a portion of the money to 3 other subjects to arrange fingerprinting schedules, interviews with foreign embassies, and book air tickets.

After the workers had their fingerprints taken and were interviewed for a visa, Nga uploaded the labor contract and visa image online, then asked someone to edit the information to match the workers’ identities. In addition, Nga also falsified information on the airline tickets, making the victims trust her and continue to deposit money. However, after receiving the money, Nga did not complete any procedures but used it to pay off debts and personal expenses.

Falling into debt because of the dream of going abroad

Among the victims of Tran Thi Hang Nga's fraud was Mr. Nguyen Nhu G. (Nghe An). In 2022, Mr. G. wanted to travel to Korea, so he submitted an application to a company. He was then informed that the application had been transferred to Nga for processing. Nga contacted G. and asked for a copy of his ID card and a statement of his salary for the last 3 months. By the end of 2022, the Korean Embassy sent a message informing him that his application was rejected and he would not be granted a visa.

In early September 2023, Mr. G. continued to contact Nga to complete procedures to go to Korea. To gain the victim's trust, Nga provided information that at this time, Korean travel applications were easy to approve, and at the same time asked him to submit some documents to apply for a Visa. After several exchanges, Nga repeatedly asked Mr. G. to deposit money. Trusting him, Mr. G. repeatedly transferred 300 million VND to Nga.

However, on the day of the scheduled flight abroad, Nga cut off contact with Mr. G. After a while, Nga replied that she could not fly due to problems, and continued to make promises. After a long wait without success, Mr. G. decided to cancel the plan and asked Nga to return the money. However, after the victim repeatedly asked for the money back, the female director returned 1 million VND to Mr. G.

Using similar tricks, Tran Thi Hang Nga cleverly led workers into a trap. The victim this time was Mr. Nguyen Cong T. (residing in Quynh Luu commune). Because he wanted to go to Canada to work, in early May 2023, through social relationships, Mr. T. contacted Nga to ask her to help with the procedures. Nga offered a cost of nearly 600 million VND, committed to leaving the country after two months, a 2-year contract, and working in agriculture.

On June 12, 2023, Nga sent an edited Visa photo via Zalo to Mr. T. and asked him to pay 400 million VND. Believing that the Visa was real, his family transferred money to Nga. After that, Nga continued to send a fake plane ticket photo to ask Mr. T. to send 46 million VND.

By early July 2023, Nga used the excuse that the plane ticket was faulty and the flight was delayed to continue to "extort" money from the victim. Nga gave the reason that the file had problems and needed to be redone and asked Mr. T. to give her an additional 350 million VND to deposit in savings and prove her financial status. Trusting him, Mr. T. transferred a total of nearly 800 million VND to Nga. However, after waiting for a while without receiving anything, Mr. T. discovered that he had been scammed and asked Nga to return the file and money, but the female director went into hiding.

The investigation agency determined that Tran Thi Hang Nga had defrauded and appropriated the assets of 14 victims and related people to complete procedures for 242 people to go abroad to work, study, and travel to Korea, Australia, Canada, New Zealand, etc. with a total amount of more than 19.5 billion VND. Among the victims, the person who was defrauded the most money was nearly 6 billion VND.

Many victims who attended the trial of Tran Thi Hang Nga for fraud and appropriation of property were saddened because they believed the promises of the fake female director. They said they had to borrow money and gold to pay Nga with the dream of going abroad and improving their family's economy. However, Nga had the heart to defraud them, causing many to fall into debt.

Fraud of tens of billions to pay debt, beauty

At the witness stand at the first instance trial, the defendant admitted her crime. Regarding the motive for the crime, the female defendant stated that due to business losses and the inability to pay debts, she came up with the scam as stated in the indictment. After a period of time being deeply involved in the scam, the defendant could not stop until she was arrested.

When questioned by the court about the nearly 20 billion VND that the defendant had appropriated from the victims, Nga stated that she had used it to pay off debts and for personal expenses. In addition, the defendant also stated that she had used part of the money to perform beauty treatments on her body.

The defendant’s testimony made many victims sitting below feel indignant. Because many families had to borrow money from everywhere to send money as requested by the defendant. Yet Nga used that money to serve her own needs, spending and beautifying. Therefore, they asked the defendant to return the money.

However, the defendant stated in court that he is currently unable to pay his debts. After his arrest, his four young children had to rely on relatives to take care of them, and life was difficult. When mentioning his children, the defendant burst into tears, apologized to the victims, and asked the court to consider reducing his sentence.

After the trial, the panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society. The defendant provided false and untrue information about his ability to send people abroad for labor and tourism so that the victim could transfer money. The defendant's actions violated the property rights of others protected by law, greatly affecting security, order and people's lives, so a severe sentence was needed to deter and educate the defendant.

Considering the case as a whole, the panel sentenced Tran Thi Hang Nga to 18 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property. Regarding the civil case, the court required the defendant to return the money to the victims.

The trial ended with a verdict for the defendant, but the victims left with many worries. Because the hundreds of millions or even billions of dong they gave to the defendant, they do not know when they will get it back.