Lost hundreds of millions because of believing the invitation to "make a red book... from afar"

On March 11, the Investigation Police Agency of Tuy Hoa City Police announced that they were temporarily detaining Le Thi Dung (36 years old) and Nguyen Ngoc Phu (43 years old, both residing in Tuy Hoa City) to investigate the act of fraud and property appropriation.

Two subjects Phu and Dung (Photo: Provided by Police).

According to the initial investigation, Ms. D.TL (54 years old, residing in Hoa Kien commune, Tuy Hoa city) knew Dung. Dung introduced herself as being able to make a land use right certificate (LURC) without the landowner having to go to a state agency to complete the procedure, only needing to provide information on the land origin and personal information of the owner.

The "fee" Dung proposed was 40 million VND. Ms. L. agreed and "advanced" Dung 7 million VND, the remaining amount, according to the agreement, would be paid after receiving the land use rights certificate.

On February 21, Dung gave Ms. L. a Land Use Rights Certificate (notarized photocopy), but because she did not have money to pay the remaining amount, the original certificate has not been delivered.

After that, Ms. L. introduced Dung to Mr. TVD and Mrs. BTC (living in Hoa Kien commune) to continue negotiating to make 2 land use right certificates "remotely". The amount to be paid to Dung was 130 million VND, Mr. D. and his wife paid 40 million VND in advance.

On February 23, Dung gave Mr. D. and his wife 2 red books. Mr. D. gave Dung an additional 90 million VND as agreed.

Mr. D. then brought the two land use right certificates to the People's Committee of Hoa Kien commune to apply for a house construction permit. The commune's land office checked the content of the two land use right certificates but did not see any information in the commune's land management book. Suspecting that the documents were fake, they reported it to the police.

Fake land use right certificate (Photo: Provided by Police).

A few days later, Dung continued to contact Ms. L., asking to pay the full amount of 33 million VND to receive the "red book". On March 10, Dung and a man claiming to be an officer of the Department of Natural Resources and Environment went to Ms. L.'s house to deliver the land use right certificate and receive the amount of 33 million VND, but were caught red-handed by Tuy Hoa City Police.

At the investigation agency, Dung and Phu admitted that due to debt, they "bragged" that they knew many people in the department, agency, and sector to quickly get the "red book".

Dung introduced Phu with the fake name Phong, an officer from the Department of Natural Resources and Environment, to measure and survey the land to gain trust. After having information about the land plot and the landowner, Dung contacted a person named Nam on social media, ordered a fake land use right certificate to give to people to appropriate money.

Source: https://dantri.com.vn/phap-luat/mat-ca-tram-trieu-vi-tin-loi-moi-lam-so-do-tu-xa-20230311180714150.htm