Busting a fraud ring of billions of dong from customers buying tours
The suspects defrauded customers who bought tours and booked hotel rooms at many VIP tourist areas to appropriate billions of dong.
On the afternoon of October 12, speaking to reporters, an officer from the Criminal Police Department of the Ministry of Public Security said that the unit had initiated a case and prosecuted Tran Ha Mi (27 years old, in Quang Ninh province), TTN (26 years old, in Lai Chau province) and NTH (27 years old, in Nha Trang city, Khanh Hoa province) to investigate the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".
These suspects were prosecuted for their involvement in a fraud ring that defrauded tour buyers and hotel bookings at many VIP tourist areas, appropriating billions of dong from many customers.
Initially, the police determined that from April 2023 to present, the 3 defendants had, through the Telegram application, agreed with a suspect named Sam (unknown identity and background) to jointly conduct fraudulent activities to appropriate property through the form of advertising as an agency to book tours, airline tickets, hotel rooms at tourist resorts...
According to the assignment agreement, Sam will provide Mi, N. and H. with Facebook accounts with thousands of followers to post advertisements for selling tours, airline tickets, etc.
In addition, Sam also provided illegitimate bank accounts for the three defendants mentioned above to use to receive money from the victims.
When customers contacted them, the suspects would use Facebook and Zalo to text and negotiate the number of rooms, the number of plane tickets, and the amount to be paid.
The defendants took advantage of the 24-hour policy of not having to pay to access booking.com to book hotel rooms and access airline websites to book airline tickets.
After tricking customers into transferring money to bank accounts that are not their own, this group will block communication by deleting Facebook and Zalo friends and then take all the money from the customers to buy tours. Most of the customers have the need to buy tours and book hotel rooms at VIP tourist areas, including Vinpearl.
With the above tricks, the subjects have defrauded and appropriated billions of dong from many victims nationwide. The amount of money defrauded from the victims was agreed to be divided according to the ratio: 3 defendants received 75% and subject Sam received 25%.
Currently, the Criminal Police Department is continuing to expand the investigation of the case.
