More than 2,600 Vietnamese people fell into Madam Ngo's virtual currency and foreign exchange investment trap.

More than 2,600 Vietnamese people fall into the trap of investing in virtual currency and foreign exchange

According to Bangkok Post , on May 23, Crime Prevention Police (CSD) arrested Ngo Thi Theu (Madam Ngo) at a hotel in Klong Tan Nuea area, Watthana with 2 bodyguards.

A day later, Police Major General Wittaya Sriprasertparb, commander of the CSD, informed: Nguyen Thi Theu is wanted under an Interpol red notice and an arrest warrant from Hanoi police for failing to report or conceal a crime.

Bangkok Post quoted Vietnamese authorities as saying that Ngo Thi Theu was an important figure in a criminal network that defrauded Vietnamese citizens into participating in investment scams through virtual currency and foreign exchange exchanges.

Ngo Thi Theu (Madam Ngo) at a hotel in the Klong Tan Nuea area, Thailand. Photo: Bangkok Post .

Madam Ngo and her accomplices promised huge returns of 20-30% to victims and hired celebrities and social media influencers to gain their trust. Victims were invited to seminars where they were advertised safe, fast-return investments. If they invited others to invest, they received commissions.

Initially, the victim may withdraw a small portion of the profit, but after adding a large amount of money, the perpetrator disappears. With this trick, more than 2,600 people have become victims of the fraud network with a total loss of at least 300 million USD .

Investigations revealed that the scam was led by a Turkish national and 35 Vietnamese accomplices. The network had 44 offices spread across the country. They employed more than 1,000 people and also expanded their operations to Phnom Penh, Cambodia.

Vietnamese police later discovered that Ngo Thi Theu had fled to Thailand and coordinated with local authorities to arrest her. CSD and immigration officers tracked Ngo Thi Theu to a hotel in Bangkok and arrested Theu and two bodyguards - Ta Dinh Phuoc and Trong Khuyen Trong. All three were charged with overstaying their visas and taken to Klong Tan police station.

During the interrogation, Madam Ngo confessed to participating in the investment fraud ring. Most of the fraudulent money was transferred to the ringleader, while her share was laundered through real estate investments in Vietnam.

Ngo Thi Theu is currently being detained, awaiting extradition to Vietnam.

Falling into the trap of dreaming of getting rich quick

According to data from the Triple-A payment gateway, by 2024, more than 17 million Vietnamese people will own crypto assets, accounting for nearly 17% of the population. However, most of them are new to the market, accessing the market through social networks or word of mouth, without a foundation in blockchain technology, digital asset law or common fraud methods.

Two bodyguards of Ngo Thi Theu were arrested. Photo: Bangkok Post .

According to Ms. Nguyen Van Hien, Vice President of the Vietnam Blockchain Association, the crypto asset market has seen many sophisticated forms of fraud, combining technological and psychological factors, causing many cautious investors to easily fall into traps.

Madam Ngo’s victims were tricked into participating in a Ponzi/pyramid scheme, which preyed on the psychology of “wanting quick profits and absolute safety”. These types of projects often promise unreasonably high returns, using money from later participants to pay off previous ones. When the cash flow is interrupted and there are no more new participants, the system collapses, causing participants to lose everything.

This is just one of seven common forms of fraud, which fall into two categories: purely technological or a combination of technological and psychological.

Mr. Tran Huyen Dinh, Chairman of the Fintech Application Committee of the Vietnam Blockchain Association, pointed out that one of the favorite tricks is to create fake tokens with names and logos similar to reputable crypto assets, causing many investors to accidentally buy the wrong ones. Another form is the "honey pot", in which investors buy tokens but are locked out of the selling feature, leading to "capital stuck" right after investing.

Another highly technical tactic is rug pulls. Projects are often heavily promoted to attract users to buy tokens, then the development team suddenly withdraws all liquidity from the decentralized exchange. The result is a token value collapse overnight, leaving investors unable to react.

There is also a form of fraudulent airdrop where free tokens suddenly appear in the user's wallet. If the user interacts, makes requests, or accesses links provided by the issuer, the user may inadvertently give the scammer access to the wallet and lose all of their assets.

For the form of fraud that combines psychology and technology, we can mention information forgery (phishing). In which, the scammer creates websites, emails, messages with interfaces identical to reputable exchanges and e-wallets to trick users into entering private/secret keys, wallet recovery phrases or OTP codes. Once the information is stolen, the wallet will be drained without the owner having time to react.

There are also forms of impersonation of celebrities or major projects. Fraudsters often create social media accounts that look like industry influencers to promote “internal investment opportunities” and “reward tokens” to lure users into sending money or providing personal information.

Finally, there is the pump and dump: a group of speculators will secretly buy a little-known token, then create a viral effect, exploiting the FOMO (fear of missing out) psychology. When the price is pushed up, this group quietly sells, causing the price to plummet and leaving all the risks to small investors who jump in later.

Ms. Nguyen Van Hien recommends that investors learn how to identify and avoid fraudulent models to protect themselves from increasingly sophisticated traps in the crypto asset market.

Source: https://znews.vn/hon-2600-nguoi-viet-sap-bay-dau-tu-tien-ao-ngoai-hoi-cua-madam-ngo-post1555798.html