'Boss' running a multi-billion dollar online fraud ring falls into the net

Through the work of grasping the situation at the grassroots level, the Criminal Police Team, Ha Dong District Police discovered that the subject Bui Manh Cuong (born in 1996; residing in Van Quan Ward, Ha Dong District) had many suspicious signs. Conducting verification, the investigating officers determined that Cuong had a relationship with Nguyen Duc Tung (born in 1993; residing in Mo Lao Ward, Ha Dong District) - a subject who frequently entered and exited Cambodia and then returned to Vietnam, with many suspicious signs of criminal activities oncyberspace.

Tung rented room 1707 of Ho Guom apartment building in Mo Lao ward and room 2705 of King Place apartment building in Thuong Dinh ward, Thanh Xuan district, Hanoi for about 20 people aged 18-25 to use computers to access the Internet inside.

With signs of crime, the Investigation Police Agency determined that the organized crime group operating in cyberspace may have foreign elements, therefore, the work of fighting and clarifying criminal behavior requires speed, prevention, and not giving subjects the opportunity to disperse and destroy documents and evidence.

On December 19, the Investigation Police Agency of Ha Dong District conducted a surprise inspection of the two apartments; the results discovered 21 subjects using computers with internet connections to commit fraud on the internet.

At the investigation agency, the identities of the subjects were determined, including: Nguyen Duc Tung (born in 1993, residing in Mo Lao ward); Bui Manh Cuong (born in 1996, from Hung Yen); Luong Khanh Toan (born in 2003, from Hung Yen); Pham Quoc Quang (born in 2001, residing in Thanh Tri, Hanoi); Vuong Thanh Binh (born in 1996, residing in Yet Kieu ward, Ha Dong); Mai Thanh Nam (born in 2001, from Nam Dinh); Tran Anh Luan (born in 1996, from Ninh Binh); Duong Minh Phu (born in 1996, residing in Soc Son, Hanoi); Vu Ba Minh (born in 2001, residing in Thanh Tri, Hanoi); Luong Vu Hoang (born in 1999, from Lao Cai); Giang Son Tung (born in 2003, residing in Ba Vi, Hanoi); Nguyen Minh Duc (born in 2002, residing in Dan Phuong, Hanoi); Dao My Trung (born in 1995, residing in Thanh Tri, Hanoi); Le Minh Duc (born in 1998, residing in Hai Ba Trung, Hanoi); Pham Minh Sang (born in 1999, from Hung Yen); Dao Qui Duong (born in 1991, from Phu Tho); Chu Tu Long (born in 1997, from Phu Tho); Ta Viet Dat (born in 2001, residing in Chuong My, Hanoi); Ngo Phuong Hien (born in 2001, from Nam Dinh); Vu Trung Kien (born in 2001, from Phu Tho); Dinh Ngoc Nhu (born in 2001, residing in My Duc, Hanoi).

During the investigation, the police seized evidence including 1 Mercedes E300 car with license plate number 30E-679.46; 21 laptops; 40 mobile phones; 42 bank accounts, which have been frozen with an amount of about 1 billion VND in the account.

From the collected evidence and the statements of the subjects, after many trips to Cambodia, Nguyen Duc Tung realized that the form of fraud on cyberspace through social networking sites such as Facebook, Web, Telegram, Zalo can... easily make illegal profits with large amounts of money.

From there, Tung researched and planned to return to Vietnam to organize and carry out the fraud. To commit the crime, Tung chose closed apartment buildings with strict security guards to set up his "headquarters". In order to deal with the authorities, the subject often changed locations, each apartment Tung only rented and operated for about 2-3 months.

From November 2023, the "boss" rented room 2705 of King Place apartment building for 13 employees with expertise in information technology and science, organized into small groups, each group has 1 team leader and 3-5 members. The team leader is paid a salary of 100-150 million VND/month, employees about 20 million VND/month. Tung directly manages and guides employees to carry out fraudulent acts of appropriating assets on cyberspace with new and very sophisticated methods: buying thousands of "fake" Facebook accounts on social networks and assigning them to team leaders to advertise on social networking platforms, posting articles recruiting collaborators to sell airline tickets nationwide with high discounts (20% of ticket prices).

When the “prey” contacts them, these subjects will instruct them to follow the request to post on Facebook with the content of selling cheap airline tickets. To gain the “prey’s trust”, there will be “decoy” subjects pretending to be customers booking airline tickets and creating successful transactions themselves. After that, the “decoy” subjects continue to book large numbers of airline tickets, until the victims transfer money to the subjects’ accounts, they will block Facebook, delete all traces, the accounts used to contact them and cut off contact.

Tung erased the traces of the embezzled money by transferring it to a virtual currency exchange opened abroad, causing difficulties in the investigation and verification process.

Initially, the subjects confessed that from June 2023 until their arrest, they had defrauded many people in many provinces and cities across the country, appropriating about 20 billion VND. And in just 1 day of "hot" exploitation, Ha Dong District Police verified and clarified 10 victims in many localities, who had been appropriating about 1.2 billion VND.

Based on the investigation results and collected documents and evidence, the Investigation Police Agency of Ha Dong District Police has issued a Decision to prosecute the case and temporarily detain Nguyen Duc Tung, Bui Manh Cuong, Luong Khanh Toan, Pham Do Quang, Vuong Thanh Binh, Mai Thanh Nam, Tran Anh Luan, Duong Minh Phu, Vu Ba Minh, Luong Vu Hoang, Giang Son Tung, Nguyen Minh Duc, Dao My Trung, Le Minh Duc for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" as prescribed in Article 174 of the Penal Code; continue to consolidate documents and handle related subjects.