Nghe An strengthens the fight against transnational fraud crimes in cyberspace

Eradicatebreaking many large-scale lines

In Nghe An, the provincial police have directed police units and localities to proactively grasp the situation and use synchronous professional measures to effectively combat this type of crime.

Typically, recently, the Criminal Police Department of the Provincial Police and Con Cuong District Police jointly chaired and coordinated with relevant units and localities to eradicate a transnational property fraud ring in the "Golden Triangle" economic zone masterminded by foreigners under the guise of love fraud and virtual currency investment.

Previously, through professional measures, the police agency determined that in the "Golden Triangle" economic zone in Bokeo province (Laos), there was a criminal group led by foreigners, established and operating in the form of a company, specializing in attracting and recruiting Lao and Vietnamese people (including some residing in Con Cuong and Tuong Duong districts) to commit fraud and appropriate property of Vietnamese people in the country.

Accordingly, the subjects in this group were trained and coached to use a "fraud scenario" with Vietnamese victims in 4 steps. First, they created "fake" social network accounts of many people, shared images of their single, wealthy lives, and inserted many images of income obtained by participating in investments through the "Biconomynft" application (a fake virtual currency exchange application created by the subjects themselves and controlled according to their wishes).

Next, the scammers will select suitable “prey”, then send friend requests, chat messages, create love relationships, and date online. After a period of talking, the subjects will find ways to call and entice the victims to invest money in the “Biconomynft” application.

After the victim trusts or falls into a romantic relationship, the subjects will guide them on how to install, use the application, register an account, and participate in investing in buying and selling cryptocurrencies. In order to create trust for the victim, at first, the subjects will transfer them a certain amount of money corresponding to the profit earned when the value of virtual currency increases.

Finally, when the victims have invested a certain amount of money, the subjects will freeze the account for many reasons to appropriate the victims' assets.

During the investigation, the authorities clarified that Vi Van Linh (born in 2003) and Kha Van Uc (born in 2002), both residing in Con Cuong district, were the two subjects directly involved in the above-mentioned fraud ring. Accordingly, in September 2023, Vi Van Linh went to Laos and joined the above criminal group to commit fraud and appropriate property. During the working process until February 2024, Linh used the Zalo account "Phuong Quynh" and the Facebook account "Pham Quynh Chau" to text, get acquainted and create a romantic relationship with a man residing in Bao Loc city, Lam Dong province.

Using the trick of deceiving people into investing in virtual currency, Linh repeatedly lured the victim into investing in “Biconomynft” and then defrauded the victim of more than 17.6 billion VND. Using the same “trick”, Kha Van Uc continued to defraud and appropriate more than 1 billion VND from the above-mentioned man.

From the collected documents and evidence, the Investigation Police Agency has initiated a criminal case and prosecuted Kha Van Uc and Vi Van Linh for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". Expanding the case, the authorities arrested, prosecuted and detained 3 more subjects for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" including: Loc Van Tao (born 2001); Luong Van Hien (born 2001), both residing in Tuong Duong district and Vi Thi Le (born 2002), residing in Con Cuong district. The case is currently being investigated and expanded.

Previously, the Criminal Police Department (Provincial Police) presided over and coordinated with relevant units to arrest a Vietnamese citizen residing abroad who used high technology to impersonate judicial officials to defraud and appropriate property of Vietnamese people in many localities across the country with an amount of more than 500 billion VND led by two subjects Phan Van Phuong (born in 1991), residing in Kim Thanh commune, Yen Thanh district and Tang Quang Vinh (born in 1989), residing in District 5, Ho Chi Minh City, working in Cambodia.

Accordingly, Vietnamese people working for companies located in Cambodia will pretend to be officials working at functional agencies and call people on a pre-prepared list, informing them that their SIM cards have been locked, their bank accounts have been frozen because they are involved with fraudulent organizations or that their accounts and phone numbers are being used by fraudulent organizations for criminal activities.

When the victim believes in the scenario, they transfer the victim's call to another person claiming to be an officer of the Ministry of Public Security Police Department (or other suitable unit), informing that the victim's identity documents are being used by criminals to commit crimes... asking the victim to cooperate in the investigation; at the same time, threatening to issue an order for temporary detention and an order to freeze the victim's account.

When the victim is scared, the subject asks them to declare their bank accounts and assets (savings books, cash, gold, foreign currency, vehicles...) for the authorities to verify. If the victim is not aiding the criminal, they will be returned.

After the victim provides information about their bank account, password, etc., the masterminds and leaders will ask the victim to go to the bank to register for electronic banking services, read the login information and OTP codes to the subject, thereby, appropriating the victim's electronic bank account. Next, they ask the victim to withdraw their savings book, borrow money to transfer to their bank account, and then transfer money from the victim's bank account to the subject's bank accounts to appropriate.

Difficulties in fighting and handling

According to the authorities, although warnings and propaganda for people to prevent have been implemented drastically with many forms and measures.

However, in addition to subjective psychology, some people still have greedy thoughts, many people have weak information security skills; while the tricks of scammers in cyberspace are increasingly sophisticated, many people still "fall into the trap".

The fight against this type of crime also faces many difficulties because subjects living abroad collude with domestic criminals to commit large-scale fraud... requiring close coordination with many units in the province, in the country and in neighboring countries.

On the other hand, high-tech criminals often build clear scenarios, with specific assignments of tasks. Once they have taken over accounts and personal information, they often quickly withdraw people's money. The amount of assets they have taken over is almost impossible to recover.

Therefore, raising vigilance and preventing falling into fraud traps must be a top priority.

Raise awareness

In addition to strengthening professional measures to combat and prevent transnational fraud crimes in cyberspace, the authorities recommend that people be vigilant, not participate in investing or trading on virtual currency and digital currency exchanges, websites and cryptocurrency investment applications; and not promote or advertise to call for the use of virtual currencies and digital currencies that have not been licensed by state agencies. Because investing in foreign websites, applications, cryptocurrency exchanges or impersonating international exchanges carries many risks.

People also need to be aware that the police, the prosecutor's office, the court... do not work via phone or social networking applications. If they want to work, these agencies will send invitations or summons to individuals and organizations related to the headquarters with a clear address to work directly.

In addition, people should absolutely not provide personal information, phone numbers, citizen identification numbers, home addresses, bank account numbers, OTP codes on personal phones... to anyone they do not know or do not know clearly about their identity and background, and should not post this information on social networks. When receiving phone calls with the above signs, people should calmly contact relatives and friends for advice and contact the authorities for verification.

At the recent press conference for the third quarter of 2024 held by the Ministry of Public Security, the leader of the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention informed the press about a number of issues related to the situation of fraud and property appropriation crimes in cyberspace and the prevention of data leakage and loss.

Accordingly, impersonating authorities such as the Police, the Procuracy, and the Court to defraud and appropriate property has been used by bad guys for about the past 10 years and this type of crime has changed and updated its methods very quickly.

The Ministry of Public Security is currently continuing to implement Decree No. 13/2023/ND-CP on personal data protection, and is advising the Government on drafting the Law on Personal Data Protection, expected to be submitted to the 15th National Assembly for discussion at the 9th Session and approved at the 10th Session. This is a fundamental solution to create a legal corridor for personal data protection.

In addition, the Ministry of Public Security is continuing to coordinate with agencies and organizations to review and evaluate cybersecurity and information security in the operation of information systems; regularly organize situation monitoring and verification of groups of subjects buying and selling information and personal data on closed platforms such as Telegram, Viber, Zalo, etc. and handle when there is sufficient basis according to regulations.

Khanh Ly