Exposing the scam technology using prepaid phone cards.

(Baonghean.vn) -Using disposable SIM cards to randomly call phone numbers, announcing cash prizes or expensive motorbikes and then demanding a prize fee from the subscribers, a group of young men in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province, defrauded dozens of people, appropriating hundreds of millions of dong.

In early January 2013, Mr. DCĐ in Nam Lĩnh commune, districtMaleDan received a call from an unknown number. A voice with a Northern accent excitedly announced: “Congratulations! You have won 180 million VND in the lucky draw program at the beginning of the year organized by Viettel Telecommunications Company. Please photocopy your ID card and household registration book and be ready to receive the award ceremony delegation, which includes journalist Lai Van Sam, representatives from the television station, senior representatives from Viettel Group, and several other officials. We request that you pay the additional costs for receiving the prize by purchasing a Viettel scratch card, sending the code back to us, and please do not inform anyone about your win to avoid public attention.”

Using similar tactics, Ms. NTT in Hamlet 3, Nam Linh Commune, Nam Dan District was also scammed out of 5 million VND, and Ms. Thuy in Hamlet 8, Nam Xuan Commune was deceived into believing she had won a prize in a Vietcombank promotional program with a prize structure of 40 million VND in cash, a motorbike, and an iPhone 5. Ms. Thuy followed the instructions, bought scratch cards to deposit into the "call center," and after depositing the money, the "call center" hung up...

From the beginning of April, after receiving information from the victims and recognizing the complex and dangerous nature of the incident, the Nam Dan District Police established Special Case 413T, headed by Captain Nguyen Duc Kien, Deputy Head of the Criminal Investigation Team, to conduct the investigation. The biggest difficulty for the special case team was that the victims and the perpetrator had never met, only hearing each other's voices, which were a mix of Northern and Southern accents.MaleTherefore, it was impossible to identify any suspects. The phone numbers used for the scams were all disposable SIM cards, used only for a short time before being discarded, and the registration information was unclear, which also posed many difficulties for the investigation team.

After a period of coordinated investigative work, the special task force identified the group responsible for the fraud as being located in Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province. A team of detectives was sent to infiltrate several communes in the district. Having grasped the group's activities, methods, and scam tactics, on May 17, 2013, the Nam Dan district police, in coordination with the local police, summoned two brothers, Pham Van Cong (born in 1990) and Pham Van Cuong (born in 1995), residing in Hai Ha hamlet, Ky Lam commune, Ky Anh district, Ha Tinh province, for questioning.

Three fraud suspects have been detained at the Nam Dan District Police Station.

After initially denying the charges, the two brothers, Cong and Cuong, finally admitted to committing the aforementioned scams. Expanding the investigation, on May 19th, the police arrested Nguyen Duc Nhuong (born in 1991) from Ky Son commune, Ky Anh district, for similar offenses. At the police station, all three confessed to committing over 30 scams by calling victims and demanding phone top-up cards. Their victims were spread throughout Vietnam, from the North to the South.MaleIn the Central Highlands region, the amount of money embezzled reached hundreds of millions of dong.

Captain Nguyen Duc Kien, head of the special investigation team, said that during the investigation, the detectives of the district police force...MaleThe authorities uncovered the sophisticated scams perpetrated by a group of young men in Ky Anh district. This group, unemployed, falsely claimed to be working as "call center operators" for telecommunications companies. Every day, they assigned themselves to call random phone numbers, usually those with the 016XXX prefix from Viettel, and often chose unlucky numbers, believing that those who owned such numbers were poor and had little money.

After making the call, depending on whether the victim's accent is from the North or the South of Vietnam.MaleThey will mimic voices and give information about winning prizes from call centers or banks. When they see a customer hesitating, this group will have another person call, pretending to be the CEO of a telecommunications company or a bank, to offer the prize. These impersonators are known in the trade as "fake salespeople," whose job is to "smooth the deal," building trust with victims so they buy scratch cards and make payments, etc.

After receiving a considerable number of scratch cards, this group would proactively cut off communication. They would then resell all of these cards in two ways: buying them at a price lower than their face value to points of sale for SIM cards and prepaid phone cards, and selling them retail to the public at a lower face value for personal use.

The victims were all selected by randomly pressing numbers, so many people in provinces such as Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Gia Lai, and Dak Lak were deceived. Captain Kien said that this group of young men considered this a way to make money, and they could deceive 1-3 victims each day, earning a large amount of illicit money. The three suspects mentioned above are just a small group operating in this business in the area; according to their confessions, many other individuals are also involved in this type of fraud but have not yet been discovered.

Captain Nguyen Duc Kien stated that during the undercover investigation, the group also resorted to fraud against the detectives, asking them to buy scratch cards for them. Currently, the three suspects are being held in custody at the District Police Station.MaleNam Dan District Police, through the mass media, announces that anyone who is a victim of the above-mentioned scams can contact the Nam Dan District Police at the following phone number:0912.625.625 (contact Captain Kien)to be processed.

Nguyen Khoa