Day 2 of the trial of 37 defendants in a fraud ring from Cambodia: Clarifying the tricks of impersonating state agencies, 'leading' victims from afar
Entering the second day of the first-instance trial of 37 defendants in the case of "Fraudulent appropriation of property" using high technology on cyberspace, during the questioning session between the panel of judges and the defendants, many tricks and tricks of the fraudsters were exposed.
Professional fraud organization
From 2021 to 2023, through social networks, introductions from acquaintances, friends, and relatives about "light work, high salary" in Cambodia, the subjects went to work forscam companies in cambodiaowned by a Taiwanese and a fraudulent company owned by a Vietnamese named Le Minh Dung (currently on the run).
These fraudulent companies use the same tricks when building tight scenarios, organizing operations like a business, assigning tasks to subjects, impersonating state agencies, calling to manipulate victims' psychology to appropriate assets.
During the interrogation, the presiding judge called the defendants to answer one by one. The defendants answered clearly about the operation method, the assignment of tasks to the subjects to lead the "prey", the percentage of commission divided when the fraud was successful...
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Accordingly, after going from Vietnam to Cambodia through Moc Bai International Border Gate (Tay Ninh Province), the subjects were hired by A Tho (Taiwanese, specific background unknown) to work with the promise of high salaries. This company rented headquarters in locations in Bavet town, Svay Rieng province, Cambodia (near the border gate), set up a system of machinery and internet to conduct fraudulent activities to appropriate property of Vietnamese people.
The company has an organizational structure of staff levels including: Company owner (A Tho); Taiwanese subjects are managers, technicians (abbreviated as PC), accountants; Vietnamese subjects are interpreters, employees in groups D1, D2, D3 (abbreviated as D). When starting to work at the company, employees are provided with mobile phones and a list of Vietnamese citizens with basic personal information such as: full name, date of birth, phone number, citizen identification card, address. After studying the fraudulent documents, the subjects begin to commit fraud. Based on the ability of the employees, they will be assigned to groups D1, D2, D3.
Among them, D1 is the largest group, responsible for calling impersonating employees of ministries, branches, network operators, electricity companies... to inform them that their phone numbers are locked, their electricity contracts are terminated, or that their personal information is related to crimes. After the victim is trapped, D1 will guide the victim to an independent space such as a private room, hotel... D1 will then transfer the call and the paper containing the victim's information directly to D2.
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Group D2 are people with more experience and a longer time working as scammers, trusted by the company owner, playing the role of investigators, on duty, team leaders... to deeply exploit personal and financial information; creating a sense of confusion and fear. Depending on which group the victim belongs to: Elderly (fear of reputation being affected), workers (fear of being arrested), businesses (fear of having assets frozen)... D2 has a way to talk to the victim accordingly. If the victim has financial capacity, D2 will "transfer the case" to a higher level.
Group D3, who have been working for a long time, are experienced D2s. There are usually 2 D3 subjects working together to manipulate the victim's psychology and carry out the property appropriation operation. When the victim is connected to D3, they will act as prosecutors, financial inspectors... directly appropriating money by instructing the victim to provide passwords, OTP codes, or transfer money to a "safe account".
Psychological manipulation and fraud of victims' money
Fraudsters often exploit the fear of the law, fear of reputation, or fear of losing property to control the victim's behavior. In addition, the first day of work instruction document also includes dialogue and response situations. The subjects also fake images of police officers and prosecutors via video applications, sending fake "arrest decisions" to increase credibility. For each successful fraud, D1 receives 4%, D2 and D3 receive 5.5% commission of the amount of money appropriated.
After defrauding the victims, the Taiwanese PC (technical) subjects transferred the money to many Vietnamese bank accounts (virtual accounts) to avoid being traced by the authorities. Every month, in addition to paying salaries to employees, the fraudulent company owners also pay for rent, food, travel for employees... and many other expenses to maintain the company's operations.
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In particular, at 6:30 p.m. every day (except Sunday), the company holds a meeting to review experiences and commend those who have successfully scammed people's money. All members of the company attend the meeting. Initially, the company owner, interpreter, D1, D2, D3 meet together in one room to commend those who successfully scammed people that day. Depending on whether they are in D2 or D3, that person reports:“Today D1.25D2.4 D3.2 scammed 1.2 billion VND", "D1.15 bet is being raised", "D1.3 bet is dead". Then, separate into each room to study the script, listen to the recording to gain experience. During the meeting, employees share their experiences in fraud, ways of talking, sayings, and words to victims to achieve higher fraud efficiency; learn from mistakes in fraudulent deals that lead to "dead orders" (victims wake up and are no longer scammed).
Using the above scenarios and tricks, on July 9, 2023, the subjects in the fraud ring of A Tho Company appropriated more than 2.3 billion VND from Mr. HVN (a Vietnamese living in the Czech Republic); on October 6, 2023, appropriated 160 million VND from Mr. TMA, residing in Quang Tien Ward, Thai Hoa Town (now Tay Hieu Ward); from October 23 to 28, 2023, appropriated more than 3 billion VND from Ms. PTP, residing in Hung Phuc Ward, Vinh City (now Truong Vinh Ward).
From November 28, 2023 to December 1, 2023, after transferring from A Tho Company to Le Minh Dung's company, the subjects defrauded and appropriated a total amount of more than 3.5 billion VND from Ms. VTD, residing in Khanh Hoa province.
The above tricks show that high-tech criminals have upgraded their operations to an “industrial” model with a systematic division of labor, applying technology and psychology to appropriate assets. Therefore, people need to be absolutely vigilant against calls claiming to be from state agencies, do not provide personal information, bank accounts, OTP codes over the phone, and immediately report to the police when detecting suspicious signs.