Another virtual financial exchange disappears, hundreds of players lose billions

Invest in virtual floors, lose real money

Since May 7, when she learned that the financial trading floor Busstrade could not access her account, she also lost contact with the floor's staff, and hundreds of millions of dong were at risk of "disappearing" without a trace, Ms. Tran Thi T. (born in 1971), residing in Le Loi ward, Vinh city, had to be hospitalized because everything happened so quickly, making her dizzy. According to Ms. T., through a friend, she was invited to invest money in the financial trading floor Busstrade, which was advertised as an international financial trading floor, established and licensed in the UK. Partly because she trusted her friend, and partly because she had knowledge of online financial investment, she boldly invested 17,700 USD (equivalent to 435.7 million VND). However, less than a month later, when the daily profits were still nowhere to be seen, in early May, she heard that this floor had closed, the system leaders had disappeared, and she could not be contacted, making her very confused and scared.

Similarly, Mr. Dinh Van Q. (born in 1982), residing in Vinh City, also listened to the sweet words of a friend and spent more than 312 million VND to invest in the Busstrade exchange. However, luckier than Ms. T., he participated first, so the interest he received was a little more, but still not worth much compared to the original amount he spent. Up to now, this exchange has suddenly closed, Mr. Q. and other investors have filed a complaint with the Nghe An Police Investigation Agency about the fraud and property appropriation of the Busstrade exchange, with the faint hope of recouping some of the original amount he spent.

It is known that Ms. T. and Mr. Q.'s group has more than 70 investors, most of whom are strangers, with permanent residences everywhere, from Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Da Nang to Binh Phuoc, Tien Giang, Quang Ninh, Bac Giang, Nam Dinh... These people have the only thing in common: they invest real money into the virtual floor Busstrade to receive interest and monthly commissions. Among them, the person who lost the least amount of 24 million VND (1,000 USD), the rest all lost over 100 million. In particular, there are investors like Mr. Dao Duc A., residing in Dong Anh district (Hanoi city), at risk of losing nearly 3.5 billion VND; and Vu Quoc M. and Le Thanh H., both residing in Nam Dinh city, invested 2.2 and 2.3 billion VND respectively, now the probability of getting this amount back is almost zero.

Just counting the above mentioned group of investors, the total amount of money that players have lost is approximately 26.5 billion VND. Meanwhile, since May 7, since the time Busstrade officially lost contact, hundreds of players nationwide have gone to the headquarters of the Public Security Department of provinces and cities to submit complaints.

Old tricks, new victims

Sharing with us, Ms. Dinh Thi TH, residing in Quynh Luu district, a player who has just invested nearly 200 million VND in the financial trading floor Busstrade, said: The reason why she and thousands of people across the country believe and have no doubts when investing in Busstrade is because compared to other trading floors, Busstrade not only pays high interest to players, but also appeals to customers' psychology that they are 100% insured of the initial capital invested. That is, when there is an unexpected incident such as a collapsetrading floor, the player can still withdraw the entire amount of money they invested. However, when the incident really happened, Ms. TH and thousands of other investors realized that it was just a trick to pick the customers' pockets.

Hundreds of investors filed complaints against Busstrade. Photo: Provided by residents

In essence, Busstrade's operations are not much different from other disguised multi-level marketing models. At first, participants will be paid bonuses, interest and other benefits on time, but then stop, the application scenario, the website crashes and the management team runs away. In fact, this is a form of foreign exchange investment that is not recognized by Vietnamese law. The reason why Busstrade attracts many investors is because in addition to the commitment of huge daily profits, 100% capital insurance in case of risks (in essence, taking investors' money to insure their own money), the form of participation is also extremely simple. Players, through a previous player (called an expert), deposit money into the floor and will immediately be given an account identical to the expert's (copytrade), which makes it easy for investors to equate that all transactions from the floor will be automatically transferred to their account identical to the expert's account.

It is known that in just the past month, a series of financial investment trading floors with guaranteed interest and 100% capital insurance like Busstrade have "evaporated" one after another, causing hundreds of players to lose billions of dong. Particularly in Nghe An, the disappearance of a number of virtual financial trading floors, typically Lion Group, has caused hundreds of people to suffer. Currently, the Investigation Police Department of many localities across the country, including Nghe An, Ha Tinh, Hanoi, and Ho Chi Minh City, has received complaints from victims.

Lieutenant Colonel Cao Anh Hong - Deputy Head of the Criminal Police Department (PC02) of Nghe An Police said: Currently, the unit is receiving complaints from a number of victims, denouncing financial trading floors for fraud and property appropriation with amounts up to billions of VND, including Busstrade. Currently, the unit is classifying the complaints to investigate and verify according to the correct authority.

Nghe An Department of Industry and Trade has also sent a document requesting the Provincial Police to strengthen coordination with state management agencies on multi-level marketing activities in the province. The Department also requested the Public Security sector to fight and prosecute illegal multi-level marketing activities and activities that take advantage of the multi-level marketing model to conduct illegal financial mobilization, fraud, and property appropriation./.