Tragedy of falling into the 'real estate investment capital mobilization' scam trap

Hundred billion scam

On the last day of the year, we met Ms. Phan Thi Ch. (38 years old, Le Loi ward, Vinh city), when this woman was at the grocery store opened right below a high-rise apartment building. Every time the amount of more than 14 billion VND that was being scammed was mentioned, Ms. Ch. felt like fainting. Working as a grocery seller, but for more than half a year now, Ms. Ch.'s store has been "sometimes closed, sometimes open". Many times when customers came to buy goods, she did not bother to sell. She was absent-minded, because the huge amount of money kept appearing in her mind.

“I don’t know how many generations I’ve had to sell groceries to earn that amount of money,” sobbed Ms. Ch. This woman is one of dozens of victims of Nguyen Thuy Quynh (29 years old, living in Ben Thuy ward, Vinh city). Since being cheated of money, Ms. Ch.’s family life has been turned upside down. The couple often quarrel.

Ms. Ch. said that she met Quynh after collecting clothes from the apartment building and bringing them to her shop to wash to earn some money. In early 2021, Ms. Ch. saved up some money and planned to borrow more to buy a car. Knowing that she had money, Quynh immediately suggested raising capital to invest in real estate.

“She said her father had a lot of connections and knew of many profitable projects. She just gave Quynh money, and after a short time, if the land was sold, she would share the profits according to the percentage of capital contribution,” said Ms. Ch.

Knowing that Quynh was the daughter of a famous restaurant owner in Vinh City, she did not suspect anything and transferred all her savings to Quynh.

The victims stood in front of Quynh's father's restaurant in the hope of getting their money back. Photo: HT

At first, Quynh also regularly sent some money to Ms. Ch. and said it was the profit from land investment, and did not forget to urge her to continue contributing more capital. Thinking that it was easy to make a profit, Ms. Ch. borrowed a lot of red books from relatives to "mortgage" at the bank, and transferred the money to Quynh to "invest in real estate".

“During the process of calling for investment capital, because I trusted her too much, I did not research the actual projects that Quynh's father was implementing. It was only when I asked for the money back that Quynh avoided me. In April 2022, when I could not contact her, I was shocked to realize that I had been scammed. Before that, I thought that because we were so familiar with each other, I was lucky enough to be invited to invest by Quynh. But then I found out that there were dozens of people like that... I borrowed most of that 14 billion VND from relatives, and for many months now I have not known how to talk to them,” said Ms. Ch.

According to the reporter's investigation, up to now, 22 people have filed complaints against Nguyen Thuy Quynh for appropriating a total of about 160 billion VND. The person with the most complaints is a woman in Quang Trung ward, with a total of more than 37 billion VND. Not only in Vinh city, Quynh also attracted many victims in her hometown in Ha Tinh.

Among the victims, some were even Quynh's blood relatives. Nguyen Ngoc KL (residing in Ky Phong commune, Ky Anh, Ha Tinh), was one of them. Recently, Ms. KL filed a complaint with the police, accusing her cousin of defrauding and appropriating more than 20 billion VND from her in a similar manner. Sharing with Nghe An Newspaper reporters, Ms. KL said that her father is the younger brother of Quynh's father. The relationship between the two sisters has always been very close.

“In November 2021, I received an invitation from Ms. Quynh to invest in real estate and share the profits on the investment amount. Because I trusted Ms. Quynh and saw that the investment would bring me profits without being too complicated or disadvantageous to myself, I agreed to invest with Ms. Quynh to enjoy the profits,” Ms. KL said, adding that during the “investment” process, Quynh was the one who researched the land plots, gave her a quote and was responsible for the land purchase and sale. She only had to transfer the investment amount into the land as Quynh requested. Ms. KL was not informed about the land plot information, land area and investment land address, she was only provided with the land price and if she agreed with that price, she would transfer the money to invest.

“When I first invested, she kept giving me money. She said it was a bonus or profit from selling land. Seeing that it was easy to make money, and we were sisters in the family, I trusted her. Many other acquaintances and friends also contributed capital to Quynh. I didn’t expect her to be so heartless,” said Ms. KL. Once a well-off family in Ky Anh, after being tricked by her cousin, Ms. KL and her husband fell into debt. She had to sell 2 cars and many plots of land but still hadn’t paid off all the money she had raised for Quynh.

Quynh was prosecuted for fraud and property appropriation but was released on bail because she is raising a young child. Photo: FB

Perfect Cover

To lure her “prey”, Nguyen Thuy Quynh created a perfect cover for herself. A few years ago, Quynh’s life was not very good. After getting married, her father gave her machinery to open a laundry shop in a small alley on Nguyen Du Street. Her husband did not have a stable job, so the whole family’s income depended on this laundry shop. However, in the past 2 years, Quynh’s outward life has rapidly changed. She bought a luxury car and often spent money like a rich, successful lady. Many victims believe that Quynh used part of their money to pay for a lavish lifestyle, with the aim of luring more “prey”.

“Even I, a relative, was deceived by Ms. Quynh because of her cover. She often sent me money to go to the temple to make offerings. She made offerings to any temple that was in difficulty, without sparing any money. At my wedding, she gave me tens of millions. I sell online, and every now and then she buys tens of millions each time. I kept thinking how could someone like that be a scammer,” Ms. KL said.

According to the victims, from around November 2021, Quynh began to aggressively raise capital. By mid-April 2022, when she had raised a huge amount of money, she "disappeared", causing investors to panic. At this time, they realized that there was no real estate investment here, Quynh only took money from later people, paid the previous people and pretended that it was real estate investment profits. About half a month later, Quynh suddenly appeared and declared bankruptcy, starting to challenge the victims.

Message believed to be sent by Quynh to a victim. Photo: NDCC

Speaking to a reporter from Nghe An Newspaper, a leader of the Nghe An Provincial Police Department said that after receiving the petition, the investigation agency got involved. On June 17, Nguyen Thuy Quynh was prosecuted for "Fraudulent appropriation of property". However, because she is raising a young child, the defendant was released on bail. She is currently prohibited from leaving her place of residence. Believing that there are many more victims, the investigation agency also widely announced the search for victims of the case, and at the same time issued an order to seize the assets of 4 plots of land and 1 Lexus car registered in the name of Quynh and his wife, to prevent dispersal, in order to protect the rights of the victims. However, most of these plots of land had been mortgaged to banks before.

Many victims said that Quynh showed signs of dissipating assets before declaring bankruptcy. The victims also obtained a statement of Quynh's bank account transactions and found many suspicious transactions right before she "turned her cards face up". Accordingly, in just a short time, Quynh had transferred hundreds of billions of VND to many acquaintances and friends. Among them, there were 2 mothers and children in Kon Tum province who received nearly 120 billion VND from Quynh; a close friend of Quynh in Vinh city received more than 160 billion VND from her account... According to the victims, these were unusual transactions.

“We want the investigation agency to clarify these transactions. Whether or not there was collusion to defraud. We suspect that this is the money Quynh swindled from us,” said a victim.

Tran Van Giang (residing in Truong Thi ward) was also prosecuted for a similar scam. Photo: File

The scam of mobilizing capital for real estate investment is not new, but many victims still fall for it. In Vinh City, on October 28, Tran Van Giang (38 years old, residing in Truong Thi Ward) was prosecuted and temporarily detained for a similar scam. Before being arrested, Giang was a cadastral officer of Hung Dung Ward. According to the investigation, Giang, with the title of a cadastral officer, created a cover for himself of wealth and success. He told many acquaintances that he was a cadastral officer and knew information about land plots that landowners wanted to buy and sell, then convinced them to give him money to "invest". After taking about 25 billion VND, Giang proactively wrote a resignation letter and intended to flee. The investigation results showed that the information about the land plots that Giang provided to the victims was not true, Giang did not contact the owners of the above land plots to buy and sell land; All the land, houses, and cars that the subject used to "show off" to the victims were mortgaged to the bank... All of this was just to gain the victims' trust. After receiving money from the victims, Giang appropriated it and used it to pay off debts and for personal expenses.

Tien Hung