Dismantling a scam group giving away iPhone 14 Pro Max on Facebook
The group posted a giveaway of an iPhone 14 Pro Max on Facebook, then carried out a series of fraudulent steps to appropriate the victims' property.
On August 3, Hanoi City Police said they were temporarily detaining 8 subjects to serve the investigation of fraudulent appropriation of property via cyberspace.
Previously, on July 10, the Department of Cyber Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (PA05, Hanoi City Police) sent a document requesting the Dan Phuong District Police to coordinate in inspecting and clarifying a group of suspects who committed fraud in Tan Tay Do urban area (Tan Lap commune, Dan Phuong district).
Conducting an administrative inspection at apartment 2124, CT2B building, Tan Tay Do Urban Area, the police force discovered 8 people here, including: Le Hung Cong (born in 1988), Tran Huu Bac (born in 1988), Tran Van Thanh (born in 1987), Tran Hoang Phan (born in 2003), Le Manh Oai (born in 1995), Tran Van Nam (born in 1995), Tran Phuong Duong (born in 1992) all residing in Dan Phuong district and Ngo Thi Thu Hien (born in 2000, residing in Van Phai commune, Pho Yen city, Thai Nguyen).
All 8 people above are unemployed and have no criminal record.
Searching inside the apartment, authorities discovered eight desktop computers connected to the internet.
Through on-site investigation, the subjects confessed to using computers to log into Facebook accounts to fraudulently appropriate the victims' property by giving them iPhone 14 Pro Max phones as gifts.
The subjects and evidence were brought to Dan Phuong District Police headquarters for clarification.
At the police station, Le Hung Cong confessed to being the leader of the above fraud group. Cong and Ngo Thi Thu Hien rented apartment 2124 with the purpose of using it as a place to commit fraud and property appropriation on the social network Facebook.
The subject Cong directly planned the steps to commit the scam. First, the subjects posted on Facebook groups with the content of giving away gifts of iPhone 14 Pro Max phones.
The subjects then used pre-created fake Facebook accounts to message people who commented on the gift-giving post via Messenger to instruct them on how to receive the prize.
When these people provide personal information, the subjects require the victims to pay an "invoice issuance" fee of 200,000 VND (step 1), 500,000 VND to create a file to verify the information of the prize recipient (step 2), 1.5 million VND to make a warranty card for the phone (step 3), 4 million VND for a delivery deposit due to the high value of the order (step 4), 5 million VND for tax (step 5) and 6 million VND to activate the refund file to receive the money back when the postman delivers the goods with money.
According to the police, the subjects honestly confessed their crimes, and their statements were consistent with the documents, evidence, and electronic data collected.
The case is under further investigation.