The perfect cover of the female 'super liar'

Applying for a job for his girlfriend, a young man was scammed out of billions of dong.

With a small figure and a face that easily creates sympathy for others, no one would think that Cao Thi Thu Ha (33 years old), residing in Dien Hoa commune, Dien Chau district, is the subject who has committed fraud and appropriated property of many victims with the amount of up to nearly 4.1 billion VND.

This divorced woman, who has no stable job or income, always makes herself look luxurious by driving a billion-dollar car and dressing neatly. In addition, her good looks and white skin make it easy for Ha to gain sympathy from others.

Cao Thi Thu Ha also said that she worked in a department-level unit of the military region. During the process of meeting the "prey" that she aimed for, Ha "bragged" that she knew leaders of agencies and businesses, that she could get jobs, buy cars at cheaper prices than the market... Believing Ha's words to be true, many people fell into the trap, transferring large sums of money to her.

Among the victims was Mr. Phan The T. (34 years old), from Nghia Dan district. He met Ha through a friend. In April 2022, when he learned that Mr. T.'s girlfriend was taking the entrance exam for the Nghe An Social Policy Bank, Ha said he knew a "big boss" who could help and promised to pass. Thinking it was real, in a short time, Mr. T. transferred 850 million VND to Ha to take care of the job.

At the same time, knowing that Mr. T. wanted to buy a car, Ha said that he could buy a car at a cheaper price than the market price. Without any suspicion, this man transferred 700 million VND to Ha many times to buy a cheap car. However, after receiving more than 1.5 billion VND from this young man, Ha spent it all for personal use.

In addition, Ha also used deceitful tricks to defraud Nguyen Cong Nh. (32 years old), in Dien Thinh commune, Dien Chau district, of 1.8 billion VND. Notably, Ha approached and defrauded this man of a large sum of money in just over a month.

Specifically, Ha provided information that he was currently in the transportation business (container trucks) and invited this man to contribute 400 million VND in capital, and each month he would receive a commission of 20 million VND. Trusting him, Mr. Nh. transferred money to Ha. To avoid suspicion, Ha transferred the commission to the "partner" twice.

In addition, Ha also gave information such as needing money to buy a hotel, money to repair a car and many other reasons that Ha herself could not remember to appropriate more than 1.2 billion VND from Mr. Nh.

After a while, Ha did not pay the commission as agreed, Mr. Nh. asked for the money back. When he had just returned a small amount of money, Ha continued to give information that he could buy a Santafe 2.0 premium gasoline version, 100% new for 900 million VND so that Mr. Nh. agreed to deduct it from the amount Ha was holding. Although Ha had previously deceived him with different information, this time Mr. Nh. still believed it.

To gain the victim's trust, Ha took Mr. Nh. to a car dealership in Dien Chau district to sign a contract to deposit money to buy a car, and at the same time, wrote a receipt for payment, promising that if he failed to keep the deadline, he would be fined for the contract. However, when the deadline came, Ha could not buy a car for Mr. Nh. When the man asked for his money back, Ha announced that he could not pay.

The investigation agency determined that the total amount of money that Cao Thi Thu Ha had defrauded and appropriated from the victims was nearly 4.1 billion VND. When she learned that the incident had been exposed, in November 2022, Cao Thi Thu Ha turned herself in to the police.

Super swindler sentenced

In the witness stand, defendant Ha stated that because of debt and needing money to pay off debts, he committed acts of fraud against many victims as charged in the indictment. However, Ha refused to answer the questions of the jury about the specific expenses that he had spent in a short period of time. After being questioned many times, the defendant only answered briefly that he had invested in land in Phu Quoc but had lost money and then remained silent.

One victim said that he transferred the money because he trusted Ha's family background. Ha even called this person to the district police headquarters to sign the purchase documents. After the incident broke out, the victims repeatedly asked for the money back, but Ha did not show any goodwill. Until this trial opened, this defendant had not returned any money to the victims. Therefore, when attending the court, the victims asked Ha to return the money he had appropriated from them.

At the trial, the judge reminded the victim and those attending the court to be more alert when conducting transactions involving large assets. The victims in this case were also partly at fault for being too trusting and wanting to “run” work. This is also a general lesson for others to be more careful when doing business and conducting transactions.

Regarding the defendant’s fraud, the panel of judges determined that it was an especially serious crime, violating the property rights of others. In this case, the defendant had aggravating circumstances of committing the crime two or more times. However, it is also necessary to consider some mitigating circumstances for the defendant such as her honest confession and remorse. After a comprehensive review of the case, the panel sentenced Cao Thi Thu Ha to 20 years in prison, forcing the defendant to return all the money she had embezzled to the three victims.

Hearing the verdict, Ha calmly put his hands in handcuffs so the police could escort him back to the detention center...