Lao Cai: Arrested 2 scammers who stole money from more than 500 tourists

Accordingly, by impersonating a number of fanpages of hotels and villas in SaPa ward, Lao Cai province, the subjects deceived about 500 tourists in the form of receiving deposits to defraud and appropriate property.

Two subjects Quach Thi Thu and Quach Thi Thu Hang

Grasping the situation, the provincial police leaders directed the establishment of a project "Fighting and arresting a group of subjects with fraudulent acts of appropriating property on Facebook through the trick of impersonating hotel fanpages", in which the Criminal Police Department presided over and coordinated with the Cyber Security Department and the provincial police to quickly isolate, investigate, verify, and arrest the subjects in this property fraud ring.

The investigation determined that, from the end of 2023, due to lack of money for personal expenses, the subject Quach Thi Thu Hang (born in 2001, residing in residential group 3, Tan Dan ward, Thanh Hoa province) and her biological sister Quach Thi Thu (born in 1998, residing in Lap Ai village, Song Giang commune, Gia Binh district, Bac Ninh province) had the intention to commit fraud.

With experience in hotel booking brokerage, Quach Thi Thu Hang and Quach Thi Thu bought and used fake "fanpage" pages with the names of hotels and villas across the country along with many different bank accounts to serve the purpose of defrauding tourists of their room deposits.

Some fanpages were created by subjects for the purpose of fraud.

After tourists contact them to book a room on the fanpages, the subjects will provide a bank account number that is not their own and ask the guests to make a deposit in advance to hold the room. The amount of money the subjects request from the victims is about 50% of the room price. After receiving the deposit from the guests, the subjects will block communication and appropriate the above amount. To conceal the crime, after successfully defrauding and appropriating the guests' property, the two subjects will delete the old fanpages and continue to create new similar fanpages to continue committing the crime...

The verification process determined that the subjects Hang and Thu had purchased and used Facebook Fanpages including: "White Cloud Sapa Homestay Hotel", "Eco Nghi Son Island", "The Kupid Da Lat"... The two subjects also used 18 bank account numbers and many phone numbers of network operators to commit fraud and appropriate property.

On July 9, 2025, under the direction of the Special Task Force, the Criminal Police Department coordinated with the Cyber Security Department, Lao Cai Provincial Police, Bac Ninh Provincial Police, and Thanh Hoa Provincial Police to simultaneously conduct inspections and summon 15 subjects and related people to work.

During the search, the authorities seized 7 mobile phones, 14 used SIM cards, 150 million VND, 11 gold rings and many other objects, documents, books, and electronic data related to the fraud.

At the Investigation Police Agency, Quach Thi Thu and Quach Thi Thu Hang confessed that from the end of 2023 to around February 2025, the subjects had appropriated more than 500 tourists with a total amount of over 2 billion VND.

On July 21, 2025, the Provincial Police Investigation Agency issued a decision to prosecute the case and prosecute the accused Quach Thi Thu Hang and Quach Thi Thu for the act of Fraudulent appropriation of property under Article 174 of the Penal Code. Currently, the Investigation Police Agency is continuing to expand the investigation and fight to clarify the violations of the subjects to handle them according to regulations.

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