Identifying fraudulent tricks to appropriate property related to land
In recent years, the situation of property fraud related to land has become more complicated with many sophisticated tricks. Although the authorities have warned, there are still people who "fall into the trap" of scammers.
Attracting "capital contribution", "capital contribution"
Taking advantage of the fluctuations and attraction of the real estate market, some subjects have used "tricks" to call for capital contributions and capital contributions to defraud and appropriate large sums of money. Typically, on September 19, 2024, the Criminal Police Department, Nghe An Provincial Police arrested Nguyen Thi Thoan, residing in Dong Van Commune, Thanh Chuong District, for the act of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" through the form of joint capital contribution to invest in real estate.
Accordingly, due to her acquaintance with a woman living in the same locality, knowing that the victim was able to raise a large amount of money, Nguyen Thi Thoan informed the victim that she had a reputable brother, good at business, with many relationships to invest in large, highly profitable real estate projects and was looking for someone to contribute capital to invest in real estate.
To gain the victim's trust, Thoan sent pictures of himself and his brother, pictures of construction sites, projects in progress, and pictures of land use rights certificates to the victim and lied that these were projects in which Thoan's brother was investing, and promised that these projects would generate profits of tens of billions of dong.
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Thoan also informed the victim that Thoan was a secretary, assigned by his brother to raise capital to invest in real estate. When there was a profit, Thoan would receive money from his brother and then return the principal and interest from the real estate to the investor.
Trusting the information that Thoan provided, the victim transferred money to Thoan many times. The total amount that Thoan appropriated from the victim was more than 7.2 billion VND.
Also using the trick of calling for joint capital to invest in real estate, Ha Thi Tam (born in 1980), residing in Nghi Thu ward, Cua Lo town, defrauded Mr. Nguyen Van Th. (born in 1986, residing in Cau Giay district, Hanoi) of 1 billion VND. To gain the victim's trust, Tam created a contract to deposit money to buy land and asked Mr. Th. to contribute capital.
After transferring money to buy land for Tam and repeatedly requesting to provide legal documents on the land purchased together, Tam failed to provide them. Realizing that he had been scammed, Mr. Th. filed a complaint against Tam to the police. At the trial held on September 27, 2024, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced Ha Thi Tam to 7 years in prison for fraud and appropriation of property.
"Blazing" wide relationships, using fake documents to gain trust
In addition to calling for capital contributions, scammers also use fake documents (fake red books, fake land records, etc.) to appropriate money from victims through buying, selling, and transferring real estate.
Accordingly, through social networks, the subjects ordered fake seals from the authorities to forge documents related to the transfer of land use rights; showing the content of land plots in good locations and spreading the news that the land plots were of interest to many investors, taking advantage of the "no purchase is loss" mentality of many customers. These fake documents were made to look real, difficult to distinguish from the original, causing many people to fall into the trap.
Some subjects also boasted that they had extensive connections and could handle land procedures to appropriate property. Typically, in October 2023, Nghi Loc District Police issued a decision to prosecute the case, prosecuting the defendant Le Thanh Hung, residing in Dien Ky Commune, Dien Chau District, for the crime of Fraudulent Appropriation of Property.
According to the investigation results, Le Thanh Hung claimed to be able to handle "full package" land procedures such as: Preparing documents for converting land use purposes, changing information on land use right certificates, preparing documents for land division and granting land use right certificates.
To gain the victims' trust, after receiving the money, Hung forged a receipt for the land use rights registration, used a fake seal from the competent authority to stamp it and gave it to the victims. In addition, he went on social networks to order fake land use rights certificates and gave them to the victims.
Using the above tricks, from the end of October 2022 to June 2023, Hung defrauded and appropriated the property of 6 victims with a total amount of more than 2.7 billion VND.
At the trial held on September 10, 2024, the People's Court of Nghe An province sentenced Le Thanh Hung to 16 years in prison for "Fraudulent appropriation of property" and 6 years in prison for "Forgery of documents of agencies and organizations; Using fake seals and documents of agencies and organizations".
A plot of land sold many times
Along with fraudulent tricks such as appropriating deposits; defrauding capital mobilization, impersonating investors or reputable people to defraud land sales; defrauding real estate transactions with fake books and fake documents, scammers also use the trick of setting up "ghost" projects to lure people to "pay" or sell one real estate property to many people.
For example, Mai Xuan Dieu (residing in Dien Phuc commune, Dien Chau district) - former Director of Construction Investment Joint Stock Company was prosecuted by the Investigation Police Agency of Nghe An province for the act of "Abuse of trust to appropriate property".
During the investigation, the police determined that Mai Xuan Dieu had organized the purchase of land from many people, then divided the plots and resold them.
However, after receiving the transfer money from the customer, Mai Xuan Dieu did not fulfill his commitment but continued to resell it to others to appropriate the victims' money.
Using the "cover" of a state agency official
In addition, some subjects take advantage of loopholes in the law and limitations in State management, targeting the psychology of people wanting to buy land with quick procedures and reasonable prices, and quickly transfer ownership to profit from some people to commit acts of fraud and property appropriation.
Notably, some of the scammers were formerly officials in state agencies, so many people "fell into the trap" because they trusted them.
A typical case is Le Van Binh (born in 1970), who used the cover of being the Captain of the Urban Order Management Team of Cua Lo town to call on and persuade people to contribute capital to jointly invest in land in localities in Cua Lo town, Nghi Loc district, Vinh city with an amount of tens of billions of dong and then defrauded and appropriated property.
Or Tran Van Giang, former cadastral officer of Hung Dung ward, Vinh city, took advantage of the land "fever" situation, proactively approached acquaintances (mostly people with economic conditions, large amounts of idle money or cadres, civil servants) and "bragged" that he was a cadastral officer so he knew information about land plots that landowners wanted to buy and sell, then persuaded the victims to give Giang money to "invest". After receiving the money, Giang used it to pay off debts and for personal expenses.
Heighten vigilance, tighten management
Faced with the above situation, the police agency recommends that people who want to buy land or invest in real estate should proactively verify the legality of the land plot. If investing through a broker, it is necessary to carefully research personal information, directly participate in verifying and verifying information in the contract with the authorities to avoid risks, and should not believe in the advertising and enticement of the subject.
For projects with selling prices that are too low compared to the market, you need to be careful and carefully research information before investing money. During the process of buying and selling real estate, if you discover any abnormalities or suspicions about documents or red books that show signs of forgery, you need to report to the police for resolution...
Recently (September 23, 2024), Nghe An Provincial People's Committee issued Official Dispatch No. 8203/UBND-CN on strengthening the management and control of real estate prices.
In particular, it requires relevant departments, branches, sectors, People's Committees of districts, cities and towns to step up the propaganda and dissemination of land laws, especially the issuance of certificates of land use rights, house ownership rights and other assets attached to land; organize the public announcement of information, planning, land use plans, investment in infrastructure development and the merger, establishment and upgrading of local administrative units; approved real estate projects to ensure transparency of market information; prevent fraud, deception and scams in real estate business.