Exposing the scam of selling fake electric wires to steal money in Thanh Chuong

(Baonghean) - Many people in Thanh Chuong district had their property stolen by a group of people posing as construction workers who tried to sell them fake electric wire. Some people were even robbed of more than 4 million VND by these people who borrowed money, left them with electric wire.

» Pretending to be Viettel workers to sell electric wires to people

On the morning of September 30, Mrs. An (93 years old, residing in Thach Son hamlet, Dong Van commune, Thanh Chuong district) was home alone when two men on a motorbike entered, introducing themselves as construction workers who had an extra coil of electrical wire and wanted to sell it at a cheap price. When Mrs. An refused to buy it, the two men asked to keep the coil of electrical wire for “10 million VND” so they could go home and get pots, bowls and chopsticks to rent during the construction period.

When Mrs. An agreed, a man offered to borrow money from her “to give to the boss”. With 230,000 VND in subsidies that she had just received, Mrs. An lent them to these two men. Seeing Mrs. An had a pair of gold earrings, a man came to touch them and asked to borrow them, making Mrs. An feel guilty. Thinking she had been tricked, Mrs. An ran out to the yard to call the neighbors, and immediately these two men got on their motorbikes and ran away.

The roll of electric wire that Le Hong Hai offered to sell to Ms. An. Photo: Nguyen Hung

Upon receiving the report from the people, Dong Van Commune Police immediately went to the scene and organized a chase to capture the two subjects. Knowing that these two people ran to Dung town, Dong Van Commune Police informed Dung Town Police. When one subject ran to Dung Town's landfill area, he was arrested by Dung Town Police in coordination with Anh Son District Police.

It is known that since the beginning of 2017, Dong Van Commune Police Department has received many reports from people about two men entering their homes and selling them two coils of electric wire at cheap prices. After purchasing and checking, they found out that the electric wire had no origin and was of poor quality. Although the Commune Police Department has monitored and organized many arrests, these subjects have escaped.

The person who was scammed the most money in this case was Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan. That morning, Ms. Lan was home alone when two men entered the house and introduced themselves as construction workers. These men offered to sell two rolls of electric wire at a cheap price, but Ms. Lan refused to buy. These men asked to keep the two rolls of electric wire and then borrowed money from Ms. Lan to "send them to their boss". Ms. Lan agreed to give 2.3 million VND. Seeing that Ms. Lan still had money, one of them used sweet words to borrow another 2 million VND from her. After waiting for many days without seeing the two men return, Ms. Lan realized she had been scammed, so she reported it to the commune police.

"Up to this point, there have only been 3 cases: Mr. Le Van Giang (Luan Phuong hamlet), Dau Duc Tran (Luan Phu hamlet) and Ms. Nguyen Thi Lan (Dong Thuong hamlet) who have come forward to report. There are some people who were scammed but did not report to the commune police, making it very difficult to verify and investigate," said Mr. Nguyen Van Thong - Head of Dong Van Commune Police.

At the police station, the arrested suspect confessed his name to be Le Hong Hai (born in 1981, residing in Trieu De commune, Lap Thach district, Vinh Phuc province). Hai and another man pretended to be construction workers and tried to sell poor quality electric wires to Ms. An. When Ms. An did not buy, he used the trick of borrowing money and depositing the electric wires to appropriate them.

Subject Le Hong Hai at the police station. Photo: Nguyen Hung

Major Tran Van Hung, Deputy Chief of Thanh Chuong District Police, said that from Hai's testimony as well as the people's report, the police determined that there were likely many subjects using the above tricks to deceive people in many communes in Thanh Chuong District. The district police sent officers to Vinh Phuc Province to verify and arrest the remaining subject, and at the same time expand the investigation of the case.

Talking about the tricks of these subjects, Major Tran Van Hung added that they often go with 2 people on a motorbike, bring 1-2 rolls of electric wire into the house and introduce themselves as electrical construction workers, Viettel workers, soldiers... working on construction sites and have excess electric wire to sell.

Using these tricks, the subjects have tricked people into selling electrical wires of unknown origin and poor quality to appropriate their property. Initially, these subjects tried to sell electrical wires at cheap prices, but when they saw that people had poor awareness and were easily deceived, they used many tricks to defraud people in order to appropriate their money.

To proactively prevent, detect and effectively combat this type of crime, Thanh Chuong District Police has issued an official dispatch requesting the People's Committees and Police Departments of communes and towns to notify local residents who are victims in the above case to contact the Investigation Police Agency for resolution.

Thanh Chuong District Police sent a dispatch requesting prevention of crimes of fraud and property appropriation.

The district police also requested the commune police to increase propaganda about the fraud methods of the subjects, grasp the strangers appearing in residential areas and the subjects showing signs of suspicious fraudulent activities to appropriate property through selling goods to monitor, detect and catch them red-handed.

Nguyen Hung