Beware of tricks that exploit spirituality to defraud and appropriate property
Recently, taking advantage of spiritual services, religious beliefs and the lack of knowledge of a part of the population, many subjects have used many methods and tricks to defraud and appropriate property on a large scale.
Identify new scams
Recently (May 30, 2024), Nghi Loc District Police presided over and coordinated with relevant units to successfully crack down on a fraud case of appropriating property in the form of fraudulently selling ancient statues of Saint Joseph, Our Lady of the Rosary, Our Lady of Grace... to people, dignitaries, and officials at churches and parishes in many provinces and cities across the country, appropriating billions of dong.
This is a new method of fraud, very sophisticated tricks, taking advantage of the religious beliefs of the victims to commit crimes, affecting the security and order situation, causing outrage among the people. The arrested subject is Vo Van Kien, residing in Trang Bang town, Tay Ninh province; the seized evidence includes 9 bronze statues, 3 mobile phones and many other related evidences.
Previously, Nghi Loc District Police received a report from a woman residing in Nghi Loc District that in mid-April 2024, two strange men proactively contacted her and introduced themselves as having dug up statues of Saint Joseph, Our Lady of the Rosary, and Our Lady of Grace, and then sold them to her for 177 million VND.
During the verification process, the Investigation Committee identified the two subjects who fraudulently sold the above ancient statues as: Vo Van Kien, residing in Gia Loc ward, Trang Bang town and Nguyen Chi Tam, residing in Suoi Da commune, Duong Minh Chau district, Tay Ninh province.
The task force sent working groups to Tay Ninh province to verify. However, the arrest encountered many difficulties because the subjects moved and hid in Cambodia, frequently changing phone numbers and ways to contact their families. Determined to attack criminals, on May 30, 2024, in Trang Bang town, Tay Ninh province, the authorities successfully arrested Vo Van Kien for fraud and property appropriation.
At the police station, Kien confessed that since the beginning of 2024, he and Nguyen Chi Tam had discussed and agreed to buy bronze statues for 1 to 1.5 million VND, and self-made the letters and numbers "24-12-1728"; "GOLD 14K" to disguise the origin of the statues as "antiques", made of gold and silver with high prices. Then, he went to parishes and churches to fraudulently resell them for 15 to 20 million VND/statue.
Using the above methods and tricks, the subjects went to many provinces and cities such as Thanh Hoa, Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Hue, Da Nang, Ho Chi Minh City... to find parishes, chapels, and religious centers of Catholicism to defraud and appropriate property of many victims with the amount of about 2 billion VND.
Among them, there was a fraud case that appropriated 177 million VND from people in Nghi Loc district in mid-April 2024. Currently, Nghi Loc district police are continuing to investigate and expand the case.
Notably, some bad guys also take advantage of websites and social media accounts to loudly advertise "spiritual services", thereby defrauding people of money from exchanging and buying and selling charms and spiritual items with superstitious undertones.
Typically, on May 19, 2024, Thai Hoa Town Police successfully broke up a case, eliminating a group specializing in fraud and property appropriation by selling all kinds of "charms" on social networks at "exorbitant" prices.
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In 6 years, the subjects sold "charms" to thousands of people across the country with a total profit of more than 86 billion VND. The 4 subjects arrested include: Nguyen Van Kien (born in 1987), Le Thi Lan (born in 1985) - Kien's wife, both residing in Nghia My commune, Thai Hoa town; Vy Thi Huong (born in 1963) - Kien's mother-in-law, residing in Chau Hong commune, Quy Hop district and Le Dinh Quy (born in 1991), residing in Le Loi ward, Vinh city.
The seized evidence included 1 laptop, 10 mobile phones, "charms", items used to make "charms" and books written in ethnic languages...
At the investigation agency, the subjects confessed to using many phone numbers and registering on many social networking platforms (Telegram, Facebook, Zalo) to sell various types of "charms", such as: "charms to keep lovers", "charms to keep wives, keep husbands", "charms to hate", "charms to make people obey", "charms to do business"... with prices ranging from 9.9 to 10.9 million VND/"charm". After someone connected, the subjects would make "charms" from mugwort, ginger, salt, herbs... and send them to the victims.
Initially, the authorities determined that from 2018 to now, the subjects have sold "charms" to thousands of people across the country, with a total profit of more than 86 billion VND. The case is currently being investigated and expanded.
Similar incidents have occurred quite frequently in recent times, showing that scammers often take advantage of victims' faith or superstition to commit fraud.
A typical example is Tran Thi Soa (born in 1985), from Tien Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district. Due to her close relationship with Ms. TTQ residing in Thai Hoa town, because Ms. Q. is a person who believes in spirituality, she often asks Soa to tell fortunes, perform ceremonies... So in May 2023, after losing money in stock investment, Soa had the idea of taking advantage of Ms. Q. to defraud and appropriate property.
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From May 14 to 16, 2023, using the excuse that Ms. Q. and her son had an accident and "had to deposit money for a ceremony to cut off the negative energy and change the positive energy", Tran Thi Soa defrauded and appropriated Ms. Q.'s property 3 times with a total amount of 1.63 billion VND.
The entire amount of money that Soa had fraudulently appropriated from the victim was invested in securities by Soa, who then lost everything. On October 30, 2023, the Criminal Police Department (Nghe An Police) arrested Tran Thi Soa for fraud and property appropriation.
Combine strict handling with propaganda to raise vigilance
Article 5, Clause 5 of the 2016 Law on Belief and Religion stipulates: Taking advantage of belief and religious activities for personal gain is strictly prohibited.
Accordingly, acts of exploiting spirituality and religious beliefs to commit fraud in any form will be strictly handled according to the provisions of law.
According to Dr. Lawyer Trong Hai - Director of Trong Hai and Associates Law Firm: Depending on the level of violation, acts of taking advantage of spirituality, religion, and beliefs to defraud and appropriate property will be subject to administrative sanctions or criminal prosecution.
Specifically, regarding administrative handling:Clause 2, Article 15 of Decree 158/2013/ND-CP stipulates "Fine from 3,000,000 VND to 5,000,000 VNDgfor one of the following acts: Taking advantage of spirit possession, fortune telling, soul calling, fortune telling, card shaking, spell casting, charm casting, spreading prophecies and other similar forms for personal gain.
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On criminal proceedings: The act of taking advantage of spirituality, religion, and beliefs to profit, appropriating other people's property from 2 million VND or more or less than 2 million but in special cases may be prosecuted for criminal liability for the crime of fraud and appropriation of property according to the provisions of Article 174 of the Penal Code. The lowest penalty is non-custodial reform for up to 3 years or imprisonment from 6 months to 3 years; the highest penalty is up to 20 years or life imprisonment.
In addition, the offender may also be subject to one of the following additional penalties: a fine of up to VND 100 million, a ban on holding a position, a ban on practicing a profession or doing certain work, or confiscation of property.
In addition, acts of spiritual fraud can also be prosecuted for criminal liability for the crime of practicing superstition and heresy according to the provisions of Article 320 of the 2015 Penal Code.
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Faced with the increasing number of cases of exploiting spirituality and religious beliefs to defraud and appropriate property, in addition to strictly handling violations, recently, the functional sector has also actively coordinated with Party committees and authorities at all levels to promote propaganda and recommendations to raise awareness among all classes of people.
In April 2024, the Ministry of Public Security's electronic information portal warned people to be vigilant against spiritual fraud through social networks. According to the Ministry of Public Security, recently, criminals have used high technology to commit fraud,Property appropriation tends to be complicated and unpredictable, causing serious consequences. Among them, there are tricks of fraud and property appropriation in the form of "spiritual services".(fortune telling, horoscopes, divination, fortune telling, advice on buying "amulets" for fortune...).
The police agency recommends that people using social networks need to be extremely alert and vigilant against tricks that exploit spirituality, national culture, and identity for personal gain.
To improve the effectiveness of preventing and combating this type of crime, the authorities need to continue to guide people's religious and spiritual activities in accordance with the nation's fine customs and in accordance with the provisions of the law.
On the people's side, when detecting cases with signs of fraud, it is necessary to promptly notify the authorities for handling measures to avoid serious consequences.