Dismantling a group of scammers who appropriated hundreds of billions in the form of 'cutting stones to find jade'

On May 9, Quang Ninh Provincial Police announced that the Criminal Police Department successfully dismantled a criminal group specializing in fraud and property appropriation on the internet in the form of "Cutting stones to find jade".

Accordingly, through the work of grasping the situation on cyberspace, detectives of the Criminal Police Department of Quang Ninh Provincial Police discovered a criminal group of 30 Vietnamese people colluding with a number of Chinese people to set up a fraud ring to appropriate property on cyberspace.

The fraud and appropriation were carried out in the form of betting on "Cutting stones to find jade" and renting a house in Dongxing city, China as a place for criminal activities.

The above group of people created Fanpages such as "Phi thuy thien bao", "Kick to change fate”, “Raw Jade”, “Wealthy jewelry”, “Lucky Stone”… and organized a live stream of stone cutting betting with the aim of finding precious gems to call on trusting viewers to participate in buying betting slots and then seize the property.

Initial investigation results determined that from August 2024 until the time of arrest, the ring had defrauded many people with the amount of money appropriated up to hundreds of billions of dong.

The Criminal Police Department of Quang Ninh Province Police identified one of the ringleaders as Tran Thi Chi (born in 1989) and Vu Van Hai (born in 1995), both residing in Mong Cai City, Quang Ninh Province.

After colluding with Chinese people, Chi and Hai rented a house in Dong Hung city and recruited Vietnamese people to go to China to participate with a salary of 5,000 - 6,000 NDT/month (about 18 to 20 million VND).

At the police station, Vu Van Hai confessed that his group had 4 people, one Chinese person was in charge of managing and cutting stones, Hai was in charge of sending phone numbers to receive money from customers, livestreaming to call customers to play. Another person used a mobile phone to comment on participating in the game like the customers to create trust for other players.

Initial verification showed that there were nearly 100,000 money transfers from victims to fraudulent accounts, amounting to hundreds of billions of dong.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Hung, Head of the Criminal Police Department of Quang Ninh Province Police, said that this is the first transnational online fraud case in which the suspects are located in China. So far, the Investigation Agency has prosecuted the case and prosecuted 30 defendants for the crime of Fraudulent appropriation of property in the form of cutting and pouring stone, the amount of money appropriated has reached hundreds of billions of VND.

"In this case, the Vietnamese defendants, as accomplices, voluntarily participated in the fraud ring to appropriate property without being forced as in other cross-border fraud cases.", Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Trong Hung informed.

Currently, the Investigation Police Agency of Quang Ninh Province Police is continuing to investigate and expand the case.

Quang Ninh Provincial Police advise people to be absolutely vigilant with some online betting activities in any form, especially when they are promised unusually high profits and for residents in border areas. Do not blindly pursue material benefits and collude with foreigners to defraud and cause damage to your own people.