Falling into an online 'love trap', a man was scammed out of nearly 19 billion VND

A man in Bao Loc City ( Lam Dong ) was scammed out of nearly 19 billion VND after falling into a "love trap" set up by two people, Vi Van Linh and Kha Van Uc, on social media.

Nghe An Police informed that the Criminal Police Department and Con Cuong District Police jointly presided over and coordinated with relevant units and localities to dismantle a transnational property fraud ring in the "Golden Triangle" economic zone , Bokeo Province, Laos. Five subjects were arrested, and the amount of money appropriated was up to tens of billions of VND.

Vietnamese people have colluded with foreign criminal gangs in ASEAN countries, taking advantage of cyberspace to commit fraud.

Faced with that situation, the Nghe An Provincial Police Department directed professional units to intensify the fight, thereby discovering a number of subjects in Con Cuong and Tuong Duong districts (Nghe An) colluding with Lao and Vietnamese subjects in Laos to defraud people in the country.

Police took Vi Van Linh's statement. Photo: Nghe An Police

Police have discovered a group of foreign criminals leading the "Golden Triangle" economic zone (Laos) who specialize in luring Vietnamese and Lao people to participate in fraud through the fake virtual currency application "Biconomynft".

They create fake social media accounts with images of rich, single people, often sharing about "huge" profits when investing in "Biconomynft". Then, the subjects approach, get acquainted with, and flirt with "prey" on social networks. Once they have created trust, even a romantic relationship, they will entice the victim to install the "Biconomynft" application, create an account, and deposit money to invest.

Initially, they may transfer a small amount of money to the victim to gain trust. However, once the victim has invested a large amount of money, they will immediately freeze the account and take all the money.

Initially, the police identified Vi Van Linh (born 2003) and Kha Van Uc (born 2002), both residing in Con Cuong district (Nghe An) as the two subjects directly involved in this ring.

The subjects in the case were arrested. Photo: Nghe An Police

Accordingly, in September 2023, Vi Van Linh went to Laos and joined the above criminal group. During his work until February 2024, Linh used the Zalo account "Phuong Quynh" and the Facebook account "Pham Quynh Chau" to text, get acquainted and create a romantic relationship with a man residing in Bao Loc City, Lam Dong Province.

Using the trick of deceiving people into investing in virtual currency, Linh repeatedly lured the victim into investing in “Biconomynft” and then defrauded the victim of a total of more than 17.6 billion VND. Using the same “trick”, Kha Van Uc continued to defraud and appropriate more than 1 billion VND from the above-mentioned man.

From the documents and evidence obtained, the Investigation Police Agency of Nghe An Province has initiated a criminal case and prosecuted Kha Van Uc and Vi Van Linh for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

During the process of expanding the case, the investigation agency arrested, prosecuted and detained 3 more subjects for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property", including: Loc Van Tao (born 2001); Luong Van Hien (born 2001), both residing in Tuong Duong district and Vi Thi Le (born 2002), residing in Con Cuong district, Nghe An province.

Through the above incident, Nghe An Police advises people: Do not participate in investing, trading on virtual currency exchanges, digital currencies, websites, and cryptocurrency investment applications. Investing in foreign websites, applications, cryptocurrency exchanges or impersonating international exchanges poses many risks for investors...

Source: https://baodaknong.vn/sap-bay-tinh-tren-mang-khien-nguoi-dan-ong-bi-lua-gan-19-ty-dong-231006.html