Scamming people into going to South Korea, defrauding them of over 2.6 billion VND.
Despite having no ability to arrange travel to South Korea for tourism or seasonal work, Hoang Hai Ly provided false information, edited airline ticket photos and visa exemption certificates to gain trust, thereby defrauding numerous victims of over 2.6 billion VND.
On May 27th, the People's Court of Nghe An province held a first-instance trial to hear the case against defendant Hoang Hai Ly (born in 1991), residing in Hai Son ward, Do Son district, Hai Phong city, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
According to the case file, Hoang Hai Ly had previously lived in South Korea and held South Korean citizenship. Due to business losses and the need for money to pay debts and for personal expenses, Ly conceived the idea of defrauding people by accepting money to process applications for sending them to South Korea for tourism or seasonal work.
Taking advantage of her South Korean citizenship to gain trust, Ly claimed she could arrange for people to travel to South Korea on visa-free tourist visas.
To gain the victims' trust, Ly uploaded images advertising South Korea tour packages and airline tickets to social media, then hired someone to edit the information as requested for 300,000 VND per edit. Afterward, the defendant sent the edited documents and images to those who wanted to travel abroad.
Believing Ly had the ability to arrange for people to go to South Korea, many victims repeatedly transferred money to process the paperwork.
Investigators determined that from May 2023 to October 2024, Hoang Hai Ly repeatedly defrauded six victims of a total of over 2.6 billion VND. The victim who lost the most money was 800 million VND.
At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime. Ly Khai claimed she was unable to arrange for people to go to South Korea but still provided false information to embezzle money to pay off debts and for personal expenses.
The victims stated that they trusted Ly because she was a South Korean national, believing she could arrange travel or seasonal work for them. Only after transferring money multiple times did they realize they had been scammed.
The court determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society and violated the property rights of others. In this case, the defendant had an aggravating circumstance of committing the crime multiple times. However, the court also considered mitigating circumstances such as honest confession, partial compensation for damages, requests for leniency from the victims, and committing the crime while pregnant.
After a comprehensive review of the case, the court sentenced Hoang Hai Ly to 14 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property." The defendant was also ordered to return the stolen money to the victims.