Steal money through accounts to gamble online

On the morning of January 19, 2022, Tan Ky District People's Court tried the criminal case against Mai Duc Tuong (born in 1998), residing in Dong Quang hamlet, Dong Hieu commune, Thai Hoa town, for the crime of "theft of property".

On July 11, 2021, Mai Duc Tuong was at the house of Mr. Nguyen Van B. (Tuong's father-in-law) in Nghia Hoan commune, Tan Ky district when he met Mr. Nguyen Van Na (born in 1987), living in the same hamlet, who came to ask him to unlock a Samsung Galaxy A51 mobile phone with a SIM card with subscriber number 0948.822.540. After unlocking the phone, Mr. Na used the phone to access his bank account to check the balance. Because he was standing near Mr. Na, Mai Duc Tuong saw and remembered all the operations, login name, and password that Mr. Na used to access his bank account.

Defendant Mai Duc Tuong at the trial. Photo: Phuong Hao

On July 14, 2021, because he could not unlock the phone screen, Mr. Nguyen Van Na went to Mr. B's house but did not meet Mai Duc Tuong, so he called Tuong and said, "Where are you? Help me unlock the phone. It's locked again." Tuong said, "I'm coming down." After that, Mr. Nguyen Van Na left the phone on the refrigerator in Mr. B's house and left.

At about 9:45 p.m. the same day, Mai Duc Tuong and Mr. Nguyen Van Lam (born in 1998), residing in Nghia Trung commune, Nghia Dan district, went to Mr. B's house. Tuong saw Mr. Na's phone on the refrigerator and immediately had the intention of appropriating the property, which was the money in Mr. Nguyen Van Na's bank account. Tuong said to Mr. Lam, "Lend me the phone, I'll get the OTP code." Nguyen Van Lam gave Tuong the Iphone 7. Tuong removed and transferred the sim card number 0948.822.540 from Mr. Nguyen Van Na's mobile phone to the Iphone 7 mobile phone, registering the Digital OTP code as "000000".

At 10:18 p.m. the same day, Mai Duc Tuong used an Iphone 7 to log into Mr. Nguyen Van Na's MBbank account, entered the digital OTP code he had just registered, and then transferred 45,000,000 VND to the Vietinbank account number, named "PHUNG THI HUONG" to buy coins through the agent account "Tinhlogach 68" toonline gamblingon the website “R88 Vin”.

By July 15, 2021, between 02:19 and 03:15, due to losing online gambling, Mai Duc Tuong continued to perform 4 acts of transferring money from Mr. Nguyen Van Na's MBbank account to the e-wallet account and MBbank account named "TRAN DUC MANH" to buy coins through the agent account "Tinhlogach 68" to continue participating in online gambling on the website "R88 Vin", with a total amount of 12,900,000 VND. The entire process of transferring money from Mr. Nguyen Van Na's MBbank account to the above accounts incurred additional bank service fees, with a total amount of: 100,000 VND.

At about 8:00 a.m. on July 15, 2021, Mr. Nguyen Van Na still could not turn on the phone, so he went to the phone store to re-run the software and restore the factory settings. Then, he logged into his MBbank account to check the amount of money in the account and discovered that 58,000,000 VND had been stolen, so he went to the Tan Ky District Police Headquarters to report.

After receiving the complaint from Mr. Nguyen Van Na, the Tan Ky District Police Investigation Agency conducted a search of the subject. On July 28, 2021, the Tan Ky District Police Investigation Agency received a complaint from a citizen of Xuan Son hamlet, Nghia Hoan commune about Mai Duc Tuong's online gambling behavior, so they checked the blue-black Realme 6 mobile phone that Tuong was using to access and participate in online gambling on the website "R88 Vin". Therefore, the Tan Ky District Police Investigation Agency issued an emergency detention order for Mai Duc Tuong to investigate and clarify.

At the end of the trial, the jury sentenced Mai Duc Tuong to 2 years in prison.