Unexpected details of the arrest of a group of people cheating on selling numbers and lottery tickets on Facebook

From a victim's report

On the morning of January 15, the Nghi Loc District Police Investigation Agency received a woman, named BTT, (23 years old) in Nghi Quang Commune, Nghi Loc District, who came to report that she had been scammed by a number of internet scammers and had appropriated a large amount of money.

Ms. T said that at the end of December 2017, through the social network Facebook, Ms. T learned that Nguyen Cong Thuan's Facebook account had information posted on his personal page that he worked for a lottery company, so she texted him to ask.

Facebook account owner Nguyen Cong Thuan introduced himself as an employee of the Northern Lottery Company, located at No. 1, Tang Bat Ho Street, Hanoi, who can know in advance and provide accurate and reputable lottery numbers.

If Ms. T wants to get the lottery number, three-digit number or three-digit number in advance, she has to pay a fee in advance with different levels. After Ms. T agreed to the transaction, the subject informed her how to transfer money using Viettel phone scratch cards via Facebook message.

The group of scammers were arrested at an internet cafe located at 162 Ly Thai To Street, Area 1, An Hoa Ward, Hue City. Photo provided by the investigation agency.

Ms. T bought 5 phone card codes, each worth 1 million VND, to try her “luck”. After receiving all the card codes and serial numbers from Ms. T, Facebook Nguyen Cong Thuan used various reasons to repeatedly ask Ms. T to transfer more money and phone number to complete the procedure to get the number.

Then Ms. T received a phone call from another person, who introduced himself as the Deputy Director of the Northern Lottery Company, where Nguyen Cong Thuan worked. This person also told Ms. T to block Facebook and only work with him. Then, he asked Ms. T to transfer 100 million VND in the form of a phone card, sent to Ho Cong Huy's Facebook message.

On January 1, the person calling himself Ho Cong Huy asked Ms. T to send another 30 million VND "to prepare documents for the director". Ms. T agreed and after transferring the money, she received a phone call from another number, calling himself Nguyen Van Hoang - Director of the Northern Lottery Company, where Ho Cong Huy worked.

This person asked Ms. T to transfer 50 million VND in phone cards via Facebook message to Ho Cong Huy. One day later, a person calling himself Nguyen Van Hoang asked Ms. T to transfer 50 million VND in exchange for the number.

Wanting to get back the money she lost, Ms. T agreed to transfer money to this person, but the result was silence. On January 3, Nguyen Van Hoang asked Ms. T to continue transferring 50 million VND to complete the procedure to receive back the money she had previously sent. Ms. T agreed to do so.

On January 4, another phone number called Ms. T, claiming to be Nguyen Manh Chien, an employee of the Northern Lottery Company, to discuss and ask Ms. T to transfer 80 million VND to the subject so that the subject could give her lottery numbers. Ms. T agreed and transferred 80 million VND by Viettel phone card via Facebook under the name Nguyen Manh Chien, but then everything went silent and Ms. T realized she had been scammed.

The objectsNguyen Phuc and Le Nhat RonPhoto: Nhat Tuan

Fraudulently selling lottery numbers on Facebook, appropriating hundreds of millions of dong

(Baonghean.vn) - A group of people created a fake Facebook page, introducing themselves as employees, deputy directors, and directors of the Northern Lottery Company, with the ability to know and provide accurate lottery numbers, then defrauded and appropriated money from gullible people.

Arrested 9 teenagers for selling counterfeit money via Facebook

The group created many different Facebook accounts to sell counterfeit money online at a rate of 1 real money for 10 counterfeit money; required buyers to pay 50% of the real money in advance before receiving the counterfeit money and proceeded to commit the scam.

Establish a special project to fight

By professional measures, the investigation agency verified that the case reported by Ms. T was real and had signs of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" using high technology. Realizing that this fraud case was very serious and the amount of money swindled was large, the leaders of Nghi Loc District Police established a Project coded 118L to fight it.

Through collected technical documents related to the internet, the Investigation Committee determined that there was a group of subjects using the internet cafe at 162 Ly Thai To Street, Area 1, An Hoa Ward, Hue City to access the internet and commit fraud.

Under the direction of the Provincial Police Department, the Task Force marched to Hue to arrange scouts to check all the locations and areas where the subjects could potentially hide and have fun after swindling money from the victims, such as hotels, motels, and internet cafes.

Through screening, a list of 16 subjects with full information about the background, personal information, operating patterns of each subject, relationships and Facebook accounts, and specific phone numbers that the subjects used to commit fraud was created.

After verifying and understanding the methods and tricks of each subject, the Task Force determined that on the night of January 29, the subjects gathered at an internet cafe at 162 Ly Thai To Street, Area 1, An Hoa Ward, Hue City to access the internet and continue to commit fraud, so the Task Force presided over and coordinated with the criminal police force of Hue City Police to approach the location.

As expected, at 8 p.m. the same day, the scammers were present at the internet cafe. Nghi Loc District Police leaders decided to crack down on the case.

Lift the net

Waiting for the subjects to be glued to the computer screen to commit fraud, the authorities raided, discovered and arrested 16 subjects who were conducting online money fraud by giving out lottery numbers, asking victims to pay money via phone cards; online fraud by selling counterfeit money, buying and selling weapons, support tools...

During the working process, the Task Force identified 5 subjects related to the case of defrauding the victim BTT in Nghi Quang commune, Nghi Loc district, including: Le Van Vinh Tu (born 2002), Nguyen Phuc (born 1995), Le Nhat Ron (born 1995), Le Tan Phi (also known as Bon) (born 2002), all residing in An Hoa ward, Vo Huy Hieu (born 2001), residing in group 2, area 1, Hue city.

Nghi Loc District Police completed the procedures for the two subjects. Photo: Nhat Tuan

Among them, Nguyen Phuc and Le Nhat Ron were taken to Nghi Loc District Police for temporary detention for investigation. Three subjects Tu, Huy, and Hieu were handed over to their families for management because they were under 18 years old. Eleven other subjects who committed online violations such as fraud, gambling, selling counterfeit money, selling weapons, etc., not related to the crimes in Nghi Loc District were handed over by the Task Force to Hue City Police for handling.

Through the investigation, the subjects confessed to committing the crime of fraud and appropriating money from Ms. T in Nghi Quang commune. Accordingly: In December 2017, Le Van Vinh Tu created a Facebook account named Nguyen Cong Thuan, impersonating an employee of the Northern Lottery Company. The subject approached, got acquainted, established credibility, and then proceeded to defraud Ms. T as mentioned above.

The subject gave reasons such as needing more money to complete the application, slow phone card texting, application problems, needing more money to complete procedures to get the number, or needing money to complete the refund procedure for the number that did not win, needing fees to send to the accountant to quickly complete the refund application... With this trick, Le Van Vinh Tu directly appropriated Ms. T 80 million VND.

Next, Nguyen Phuc took Ms. BTT's phone number provided by Le Van Vinh Tu, called Ms. BTT, and introduced himself as the deputy director. Phuc told Ms. T that Nguyen Cong Thuan had been fired for fraud and asked Ms. T to transfer money to him to get lottery numbers. After receiving the money, the subject also gave many reasons such as not having enough money, having problems with procedures and needing more money. If Ms. T asked for the money back, the subject gave the reason that he needed the money to complete the paperwork to get the money back. Phuc had appropriated more than 80 million VND from Ms. T.

On January 3, Le Nhat Ron took Ms. T's phone number from Le Van Vinh Tu, called Ms. T, and introduced himself as the director of the Northern Lottery Company. Ron tried to gain credibility and then repeatedly asked Ms. T to transfer money via phone card to him, a total amount of over 127 million VND.

In the process of receiving the phone card from Ms. T, the above subjects asked Le Tan Phi to enter the code and serial number of the phone card into the account on the website doithe.vn of Le Van Vinh Tu and withdraw money at the bank. Phi received 3 million VND from the subjects. After seeing Le Vinh Tu chatting on a fake Facebook and getting a lot of money from Ms. T's card, Vo Huy Hieu created a Facebook named Nguyen Manh Chien and approached Ms. T to scam her.

Using the same tricks as the above subjects, Hieu appropriated 80 million VND in phone cards from Ms. T.

During the investigation, the Task Force determined that the above subjects had defrauded and appropriated about 375 million VND from Ms. T. In addition, the subjects also defrauded many other victims across the country.

Currently, the investigation is being expanded.

Nhat Tuan