Hacker took over Facebook account, pretended to be daughter-in-law and tricked mother-in-law into transferring 490 million VND

On March 22, Da Nang City Police arrested Nguyen Van Duc (31 years old, residing in Trieu Thanh commune, Trieu Phong district, Quang Tri province) for fraud and property appropriation.

Nguyen Van Duc was extradited from Quang Tri to Da Nang by the police to assist in the investigation.

Previously, through the work of grasping the situation and information from the victims, the Criminal Police Department determined that from the beginning of 2025 until now, many Vietnamese people with relatives living abroad have been impersonated by subjects to defraud and appropriate property through the social network Facebook.

The trick of these subjects is to hack the Facebook accounts of Vietnamese people living abroad, then use these accounts to scam and appropriate money.

On March 14, the Criminal Police Department received information from Ms. Vu Thi T. (59 years old, residing in An Hai Nam ward, Son Tra district, Da Nang city) about her daughter-in-law living abroad having her Facebook account hacked by a criminal. After that, the subject impersonated the daughter-in-law and texted Ms. T. saying that he was providing a money transfer service to Vietnam for overseas Vietnamese.

The impersonator asked Ms. T. to transfer money to the customer's relatives in Vietnam, then the customer would transfer the money back. Ms. T. did as she was told, transferring 490 million VND, then contacted her daughter-in-law directly to find out she had been scammed.

On March 22, the Criminal Police Department of Da Nang City Police coordinated with professional units of Quang Tri Provincial Police to summon and search Duc's residence.

At the police station, Nguyen Van Duc admitted to using computer technology to hack Facebook, then taking over the account. Duc used the hacked account, impersonating the account owner to contact and text relatives, friends, and acquaintances in the contact list to inform them that he was providing a money transfer service to Vietnam for overseas Vietnamese in order to appropriate the money.

To avoid the police from tracing the money, he used game accounts to receive the scammed money.

Through searching Duc's residence, the Criminal Police Department temporarily seized evidence including 6 mobile phones of various types, 154 million VND in cash, and 10 savings books worth 1.3 billion VND.