Arrested 155 subjects in the Golden Triangle specializing in online fraud
Ha Tinh police have just busted a case, arresting 155 Vietnamese people in the Golden Triangle economic zone (Laos) for engaging in cyber fraud.
According to collected intelligence documents, by the end of 2023, fraud rings in Southeast Asia such as Cambodia, the Philippines, Malaysia, Myanmar, etc. had moved their operations to the Golden Triangle economic zone in Bokeo province, Laos.
In addition to the victims in Asian countries, with the tactic of "using Vietnamese people to deceive Vietnamese people", the subjects have attracted and enticed more Vietnamese people to illegally enter the country through border gates with attractive salary policies from 18-30 million VND to commit acts of fraud and property appropriation against Vietnamese people.
In just a short time, the subjects established their own "empire" in the area known as "inviolable" masterminded and led by foreigners.
The subjects will have to live and work in high-rise buildings in the Bokeo special zone, be given a "script", a phone and a Lao SIM card to create fake Facebook accounts and be instructed in fraudulent methods to appropriate property.
Vietnamese employees were assigned to use Facebook accounts without real information, impersonating successful, wealthy, business people, but single, regularly posting pictures of partying, traveling, making these virtual accounts look real to make friends, get to know each other, flirt, and create trust with people in Vietnam.
With elaborately staged "psychological traps" that appeal to emotional needs, they easily create love relationships online.
After gaining trust, they will trick them into investing in hotel business on a "virtual" hotel business application called OYO to enjoy high commission percentages, profiting from which they appropriate the money the victims have invested.
Understanding that the victims would be worried and ashamed, they would not dare to report to the police. Furthermore, their headquarters were also located abroad, and transaction information was also transferred through different sources, making it difficult to trace the destination, so this network had been operating for a long time, appropriating the assets of thousands of people.
After understanding the organization’s operating rules, from July 30, hundreds of elite soldiers from the Ha Tinh Criminal Police Department and other professional units set out to carry out their mission. In the early morning of August 2, the task force coordinated with the Laotian police to decide to crack the case.
The goal of the task force is to arrest all suspects, promptly collect evidence and, most importantly, protect the safety of the arresting force.
After successfully breaking in, the detectives approached the suspects' offices. They worked from the 3rd to the 11th floors of the building, so when they detected the commotion, they immediately fled. The suspects quickly dispersed, destroyed their tools, barricaded themselves in the common room, climbed out onto the balconies to hide, or mingled with the foreigners working in the same building.
After more than 4 hours of arrest by the Vietnamese and Lao police forces, the masterminds, leaders and Vietnamese employees were caught. The authorities arrested 155 subjects, seized nearly 100 passports, 74 pills of ecstasy, 18,900 yuan, dozens of computers and nearly 500 phones along with thousands of unregistered SIM cards and other tools and documents used to commit fraud.
Initially, the police determined that this ring had scammed more than 200 Vietnamese people, with the largest victim being scammed out of up to 5 billion VND.
The Criminal Police Department of Ha Tinh Police is continuing to investigate and expand the case. Ha Tinh Police informs anyone who is a victim of the above fraud ring to quickly contact and report for coordination in resolving the case.