Empty-handed, in debt because of believing friends' invitation to 'surf' land

Tricks to pool money to "hold land"

Present at the People's Court of Nghe An province quite early, Mr. Le Minh C. (40 years old), residing in Quynh Hau commune, Quynh Luu district, did not think that his life would be in debt because he trusted his fellow countryman - Tran Van Nam (40 years old, residing in Quynh Hau commune). Not only did they live in the same village, the two were also friends. Because of trust, Mr. C. lost all his savings after many years of working as a hired hand in a foreign land. Not only that, he also had to take on more debt because he had borrowed money to give to Nam.

It all started in 2021, when Mr. C. was working in Singapore. At that time, the domestic real estate market started to "heat up". Therefore, when reading the articles Nam wrote and posted on social networks about selling land and inviting investors, Mr. C. asked.

In fact, Tran Van Nam did not trade in land, but because he lost money investing online, leading to debt, he had the intention to commit fraud. At that time, because Mr. C. was abroad, to gain trust, Nam took Mr. C.'s wife to see some plots of land, but she did not like any of them.

After that, Nam called Mr. C. and invited him to contribute a deposit to buy land to “surf” for profit. Thinking it was real, the man working abroad agreed. Nam gave false information about the non-existent plots of land, the selling price and the amount of deposit required to buy the land, and sent a picture of the “deposit paper”. Because he was abroad and trusted his friend in the same commune, Mr. C. transferred money to Nam many times.

Specifically, on April 17, 2021, Tran Van Nam informed Mr. C that he currently has a plot of land in Quynh Hoa commune with an area of ​​200m2.², price 1.2 billion VND, deposit to buy land 300 million VND. Nam asked Mr. C. each to contribute half of the deposit. Trusting him, Mr. C. asked someone to transfer 160 million VND deposit to buy land to Nam.

Then on April 22, Nam informed Mr. C. of the “good news” that he had sold the first plot of land, with a profit of 40 million VND for each person, and asked Mr. C. to invest in the second plot for 1.7 billion VND, with a deposit of 500 million VND. After calculating the deposit and interest of the first plot, Nam asked Mr. C. to contribute only 20 million VND as a deposit. After receiving the money, Nam wrote a “Deposit Paper” himself, filled in all the information, took a photo, and sent it to Mr. C.

Seeing that everything was going smoothly, on April 24, Nam continued to trick Mr. C. into buying the third plot of land for 2.3 billion VND, with a deposit of 1 billion VND. This time, Nam asked Mr. C. to deposit 500 million VND so that the new owner could keep the land. Trusting Nam's words, Mr. C. asked someone to transfer 50 million VND. A day later, Nam informed Mr. C. that the land had been sold, with a profit of 200 million VND, each person getting half. Believing that Nam's work was effective, Mr. C. continued to ask someone to transfer 120 million VND to Nam's account.

In addition, Nam also lied about the fact that his house's land title was being mortgaged to borrow money from a credit fund, and then asked Mr. C. to deposit money to withdraw the red title. Nam promised to mortgage the red title to the bank to borrow a larger amount of money to invest in land with Mr. C. Trusting Nam's words, Mr. C. transferred to Nam many times a total of 175 million VND.

The investigation agency determined that from April 2021 to February 2022, Tran Van Nam defrauded and appropriated more than 520 million VND from Mr. C.

Empty-handed because of believing the scammer

During his time living and working abroad, Mr. C. did not know he was being scammed. This man only knew he had "fallen into the trap" of the scammer when he returned home. Specifically, in March 2022, after returning home, Mr. C. asked Nam to take him to see the plots of land he had bought and deposited. However, Nam always made excuses to avoid it. After investigating, Mr. C. realized he had been scammed, so he filed a complaint with the police.

With the above behavior, Tran Van Nam was arrested and prosecuted for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". At the trial, the defendant admitted to the crime as charged in the indictment. Nam stated that due to losing money investing online and being in debt, he defrauded the victim. The defendant spent all the money he got from the scam. When questioned by the court about the method of committing the crime, the defendant stated that he had researched it on social networks and then applied it.

Attending the court as a victim, Mr. C. sadly explained that they were friends and from the same hometown, so when Nam invited him to invest, he agreed. But unexpectedly, because of his trust, he fell into debt. "All the money I saved during my time working abroad was lost," Mr. C. said. Not only that, for many years he had to work hard to pay off his debt because he had previously borrowed money to give to Nam to invest.

At the trial, the panel of judges asked about returning the money that had been embezzled to the victim. Nam said that he currently had no assets. The house where he lived had been seized by the enforcement agency. The defendant stated that he was currently unable to repay the debt to the defendant and promised to "earn money to pay back after being released from prison".

In response to the defendant, the victim clearly expressed his frustration. He stated that his life is currently very difficult due to Nam’s fraudulent behavior. Therefore, the victim requested the court to try the defendant according to the law.

The panel of judges determined that the defendant's actions were dangerous to society. The defendant took advantage of the victim's trust to appropriate money. Because of greed, the defendant did not hesitate to commit fraud, so he should be severely punished. Considering the case as a whole, the court sentenced Tran Van Nam to 12 years in prison for "fraudulent appropriation of property" and ordered him to return the money to the victim.

The trial ended with a 12-year prison sentence for the defendant, however, the panel of judges reminded the people to be vigilant in asset management. Because there are currently many forms of fraud and investment used by bad people, people need to raise their vigilance to avoid "falling into traps".