Many people in Quang Ninh "fell into the trap" of fraud, losing billions through virtual currency exchanges.

Although many fraud rings through virtual currency exchanges have been repeatedly shut down by the police, the situation of fraudulent activities to appropriate assets on the internet is still complicated and tends to increase.

In Quang Ninh, from May 2020 to May 2021 alone, the police received and handled 114 cases, with a total of over 83 billion VND in stolen assets.

Recently, authorities have continuously issued warnings about a number of financial investment platforms showing signs of fraud.

Recently, the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Team, Criminal Police Department, Quang Ninh Provincial Police have continuously received reports from people who have been scammed and lost money when investing in virtual currency exchanges.

The subjects who created financial investment websites such as: Busstrade.com; Bigbuy24h; Bimono; Coolcat... introduced, invited, and enticed people to participate with promises of high profits and attractive commissions.

Investors pay money into the system in cash or by bank transfer to convert into "virtual" money. When a certain number of people participate, the websites of these exchanges suddenly stop working, and the participants lose all the money they invested.

Mr. Nguyen Van Trung, residing in Ha Long City, one of the people who was scammed and had his property appropriated by this form, said that when he first joined, he deposited a small amount of money and was cautious, but then people around him boasted about high profits, and seeing the money go up, he became greedy. The person who introduced him promised not to lose money, so Mr. Trung invested more, but after a while, the floor collapsed and he could not be contacted.

According to the police, the scams of virtual currency exchanges are not a new issue, but they are always hot. Because scammers often prey on investors' greed with advertising tricks such as 3% profit per second, 360% per year.

In addition to promising huge profits, these exchanges also offer a commission of 5-10% for players who invite new investors. Therefore, the number of people participating in virtual currency exchanges is very large, up to thousands of people in many provinces and cities across the country.

In Quang Ninh alone, since the beginning of the year, the police have received more than 30 reports of fraud and money appropriation through virtual currency exchanges.

According to Major Nguyen Trong Ha, Head of the High-Tech Crime Prevention Police Team, Criminal Police Department (Quang Ninh Police), one characteristic is that the subjects offer very simple investment strategies. Investors do not need to research but can easily see the profits increase by the hour, by the day. When the subjects attract a certain amount of money from investors, they will crash the site.

Virtual currency is not a means of payment recognized by Vietnamese law. The law does not protect against risks when participating in illegal virtual currency exchanges. Many victims reported to the police that they were aware of the risks when participating in virtual currency exchanges and planned to withdraw their investments “early” before the exchange collapsed.

However, in reality, most investors participating in virtual currency exchanges have become victims of scams and their investment money is never recovered, because most of the servers of illegal virtual currency exchange websites are located abroad.

According to VOV