'Monster' super swindler hiding under the guise of a philanthropist

"Philanthropist" goes scamming

Tran Thi Thuy (born in 1980), born in Cam Xuyen district (Ha Tinh). This woman once went to Ho Chi Minh City to start a business and live with her husband and children. However, from around 2023, Thuy returned to Nghe An, setting up an office in Hung Trung commune, Hung Nguyen district.

During her work, Thuy created a cover for herself as a philanthropist, specializing in helping people in difficult circumstances. Thuy also regularly posts pictures of herself participating in charity activities on social networks to build her image.

In January 2024, Tran Thi Thuy went to Nghi Tien commune, Nghi Loc district to do charity work, supporting the family of Ms. Pham Thi V. (born in 1954) with 5 million VND. During the process of visiting and helping this family, Thuy learned that Ms. V. wanted to re-issue the "red book" and transfer the land plot to her son, so she said she could do it for 100 million VND. Despite the difficult circumstances, this family borrowed money to give Thuy 50 million VND.

Not stopping there, Thuy also used another trick, which was to promise to take care of her son's labor export. Because of her difficult family situation, when hearing Thuy's promise, Mrs. V. trusted her and gave this woman 17 million VND in advance.

After receiving the money from Ms. V. Tran Thi Thuy, she did not contact any organization, individual or company that has the function of processing labor export procedures but used it for personal purposes. Thuy also did not use the money she received to make the "red book" as promised.

After giving money to Thuy many times, Ms. V.'s family realized they had been scammed. They repeatedly asked for their money back but were unsuccessful. Therefore, the victim filed a complaint with the police. Thuy's fraudulent behavior and money appropriation made her already difficult family even more miserable.

Impersonating a lawyer to cheat people out of "fixing cases" and exporting labor

During her time in Nghe An to set up her office, Tran Thi Thuy always claimed to be a lawyer, capable of “fixing cases and getting bail” for those in need. Many people trusted her and contacted her for help.

Specifically, in September 2023, after Nghi Loc District Police (Nghe An) arrested and prosecuted the gambling case, some relatives of the prosecuted subjects contacted Tran Thi Thuy to ask for bail and sentence reduction.

After hearing about the incident, Thuy told the wife of a gambling suspect that she would help him get bail and avoid criminal prosecution because this was just gambling. Thuy promised to “get bail” for her husband for 250 million VND and to “take care of not being criminally prosecuted” for 270 million VND.

Some time later, this woman brought some other people to meet Thuy, including Ms. Nguyen Thi H. During a conversation at a hotel, Thuy said she would help Ms. H.'s husband get out on bail and not be prosecuted, only being fined an administrative fee of 250 million VND. Thuy said that 50 million VND was the cost of signing a legal service contract with the law firm, but told this woman to give the money directly to her.

After Ms. H.'s husband was released on bail pending trial, Thuy led her to another form of fraud. Thuy said that her company also provided labor export services. If Ms. H. and her husband wanted to send their husband to work in the UK, they could give her money, the cost was 300 million VND. Trusting her, Ms. H. transferred money to Thuy many times. Thuy did not carry out the money she had embezzled as promised and spent it all on personal expenses.

Using the same trick, after promising to get out on bail and get her sentence reduced, Thuy tricked her family into putting in more money to go work abroad. Some people trusted her and gave her 500 million VND to do the paperwork to go to the US. However, those were just tricks of this woman to defraud.

Sentence for super fraud

The investigation agency determined that from October 2023 to March 2024, Tran Thi Thuy had repeatedly defrauded and appropriated money from 29 victims living in Nghe An, Ha Tinh, and Ho Chi Minh City, totaling nearly 6.9 billion VND. Of which, the person Thuy defrauded the most money was nearly 800 million VND.

With the above crime, recently, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance trial of defendant Tran Thi Thuy for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property. Before the witness stand, the defendant admitted to the crime as charged in the indictment. Thuy admitted that she was not a lawyer but because she wanted money to spend, she came up with tricks to defraud the victims. The defendant stated that she was currently unable to pay the debts to the victims and apologized to the victims, at the same time asking the court to consider reducing the sentence.

Attending the court, the victims demanded that the defendant return the money to them. They stated that they were scammed out of a large amount of money because they trusted the defendant. Many of the victims had been scammed twice by Thuy, from running for bail to tricking them into going abroad to work.

Attending the court as victims, some victims admitted that due to their own ignorance, they had “fallen into the trap” and become Thuy’s prey. They said this was an expensive lesson to pay for their own ignorance.

Through the trial, the panel of judges also reminded people to be alert to the enticements of bad guys so as not to fall into scam traps and avoid losing money.

Regarding the defendant’s criminal behavior, the panel of judges determined that this was an illegal act, dangerous to society, so they sentenced Tran Thi Thuy to 20 years in prison for fraud and property appropriation. Regarding the civil part, the court ordered the defendant to return the money to the victims.