Prosecution of large-scale cyber fraud case in Hanoi

On the afternoon of November 14, Ha Dong District Police (Hanoi) announced that they had initiated a criminal case and detained Nguyen Van Tuan (born in 2004), Le Van Tien (born in 2004), Nguyen Tien Dung (born in 2005), Nguyen Huu Huy (born in 2001) and Truong Trong Tuan (born in 2003), all from Ung Hoa District (Hanoi) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

The leader of Ha Dong District Police said that through the work of managing and ensuring security and order in apartment buildings and preventing hidden crimes, the police discovered a group of young people renting a room on the 5th floor of an apartment building in Xa La urban area, Phuc La ward, Ha Dong district, showing suspicious signs.

Because this group of young people use many desktop computers with Dcom-3G devices connected to the internet using phone sim cards, they do not use regular internet.

Therefore, the police applied professional measures and found out that the whole group was from Ung Hoa district, unemployed, aged 18-20, and did not go out every day but only stayed in their rooms using computers.

On November 10, the police suddenly inspected the apartment. During the inspection, the police discovered 5 suspects using 4 computers with internet connection to commit fraud on the internet. The identities of the 5 suspects were identified as above.

The victims transferred money to the game account "Tai-Xiu"

When arrested, the suspects confessed that in early October 2023, Nguyen Van Tuan rented an apartment, bought 4 computers and Dcom-3G devices to connect to the internet and installed them there. After that, Van Tuan discussed with the other 4 suspects to organize fraudulent activities to appropriate assets in cyberspace.

To commit the fraud, Van Tuan went online to buy thousands of "fake" Zalo and Facebook accounts and gave them to Dung, Tien, Huy, and Trong Tuan to post fake posts on Facebook loan groups to support people in need of loans.

Here, the suspects advertise quick loan procedures, low interest rates... The suspects also pretend to have borrowed money to "bait" to attract borrowers. To gain the victims' trust, the suspects forge loan contracts, use "fake" Zalo accounts to send messages, and if they agree, they will ask them to pay various fees to complete the procedures.

The fees include: document preparation, quick stamp application, insurance, etc. Each type of borrower must pay from several hundred thousand to several tens of millions of VND. The borrowers must transfer the money to Nguyen Van Tuan’s “Tai-Xiu” game account. When the victims transfer money, Van Tuan withdraws the money and shares it with them.

When the victims become suspicious, the suspects will erase all traces of them and cut off contact. Because the money embezzled from the victims is erased by transferring it to a game portal account opened abroad, it makes it difficult to investigate and verify the victims.

Not only that, to organize fraudulent activities to appropriate property, the suspects chose closed apartment buildings with security forces to manage and control them tightly.

In addition, each location these suspects only rented and operated for no more than 3 months to avoid detection by the police. With the above methods, the suspects explained, they had defrauded many people with amounts up to billions of dong.