Deputy Prime Minister requests handling of illegal forms of electronic payments

On the afternoon of March 15, Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue assigned agencies to review the situation and propose measures to manage and handle the use of online payment methods related to violations of the law.

The Government Office said that, monitoring the press and internet activities recently, there has been a phenomenon of high-tech crimes and internet crimes using new forms of payment to pay for illegal activities such as gambling, buying and selling illegal goods and services, etc.

Deputy Prime Minister Vuong Dinh Hue assigned the State Bank to preside over and coordinate with the Ministry of Information and Communications, the Ministry of Justice and relevant agencies to review, research, and in May 2018 report to the Prime Minister on the situation and propose measures to manage and handle the use of payment methods on the internet, especially payment activities related to illegal acts (tax evasion, gambling, money laundering, etc.).

Previously, in May 2017, from a complaint from a woman who was scammed and had 55 million VND in phone cards stolen online, Phu Tho Provincial Police investigated and discovered an online gambling ring with a scale of thousands of billions of VND.

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Two months later, the Investigation Security Agency, Phu Tho Provincial Police initiated a case of "using the internet to appropriate property, organize gambling, illegally buy and sell invoices and launder money", prosecuting more than 60 people, arresting dozens of people including two masterminds: Nguyen Van Duong (Chairman of the Board of Directors of High-Tech Security Development Investment Company - CNC) and Phan Sao Nam (39 years old, former Chairman of the Board of Directors, Director of VTC Online Media Joint Stock Company - VTC online).

On March 11, this agency prosecuted and arrested Mr. Nguyen Thanh Hoa (former head of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Department - C50) for organizing gambling.

The investigation agency accused Nam and Duong of being the masterminds, operating an online gambling ring through the form of card games. Mr. Hoa, as the head of the high-tech crime investigation police agency, did not take any action to prevent Duong and Nam's illegal acts, and even assisted and protected them.

According to the investigation agency, Nam and Duong are the masterminds, operating an online gambling network through the form of card games. Players buy phone scratch cards and Vcards issued by CNC to load into the game and then buy virtual money to gamble through card acceptance services from payment gateways of many companies. Revenue from this form is controlled by CNC company.

The second way is to use bank money to deposit into ATM account through online payment gateway to buy virtual money and game cards.

Authorities estimate that the network has more than 20 million participating accounts with 8 million regular players. When cracking the case, the investigation agency collected over 1,000 billion VND. There are no official figures yet, but the amount of foreign currency transferred abroad from gambling is estimated at about 3.6 million USD, temporarily holding and seizing 20 apartments and 13 cars of various types; freezing bank accounts with more than 380 billion VND and many savings books.