On July 3, the People's Court of Bac Ninh province announced the appeal verdict in the lawsuit between customer Tran Thi Chuc (50 years old, residing in Tu Son city) and the Joint Stock Commercial Bank for Foreign Trade of Vietnam ( Vietcombank ).

On the morning of July 3, Ms. Chuc submitted a request to postpone the trial due to health reasons. However, after consideration, the panel of judges continued to hear the case on the grounds that Ms. Chuc had submitted a request to postpone due to health reasons, but did not have a certificate from the competent authority.

Customer lost 26.5 billion at VCB and TCB: TCB is not at fault, customer burst into tears Customer lost 26.5 billion at VCB and TCB: TCB is not at fault, customer burst into tears

At the trial, lawyer Le Ngoc Ha (who defended Ms. Chuc's rights) argued on behalf of Ms. Chuc and presented many arguments, proving that Ms. Chuc's loss of 11.9 billion VND in her account opened at Vietcombank - Kinh Bac Branch was due to the bank's fault.

"In this case, if the consultant and professional staff had properly and fully performed their responsibilities during the process of contacting and advising on procedures for opening a new account for Ms. Tran Thi Chuc at Vietcombank - Kinh Bac Branch on April 22, 2022, as well as the process of instructing Ms. Chuc on how to use and apply measures to ensure safety, information security, and warn about some tricks of scammers... so that Ms. Chuc could understand and grasp, then the consequences of customers being taken advantage of by bad guys due to their lack of knowledge would not have occurred," said lawyer Ha.

Vietcombank said that Ms. Chuc's loss of money in her account was entirely due to the customer and had nothing to do with the bank.

After deliberation, the panel of judges concluded that all terms Ms. Chuc signed with the bank were completely legal.

According to Ms. Chuc's complaint to the police, she received a phone call from two people claiming to be police officers, saying that she was accused of causing a traffic accident, being involved in drug trafficking, money laundering, and asked to open accounts at Techcombank and Vietcombank, and transfer a total of more than 26.5 billion VND into them.

She was asked to buy a new phone and install security software to "prove the money was clean"; buy another phone to contact via Viber with the person claiming to be a police officer.

This software was later determined by the investigation agency to be able to intervene, process and change a lot of information such as location, history, contacts, messages... Therefore, this was the indirect cause leading to providing the subjects with the right to log in to Ms. Chuc's devices.

The court rejected Ms. Chuc's appeal, accepted Vietcombank's appeal and the protest of Tu Son City People's Procuracy. This means that Vietcombank does not have to compensate any of the 11.9 billion VND that customers lost.

Will recommend to the Chief Justice of the People's Court and the Supreme People's Procuracy

Thus, in the consecutive appeal trials of two cases of "Dispute over payment service provision activities" between Ms. Tran Thi Chuc and Vietcombank and Techcombank, customers did not receive any compensation from the banks.

Previously, at the first instance verdict, the People's Court of Tu Son City determined that there was a mixed fault in this case, in which the fault partly belonged to the banking service providers Techcombank and Vietcombank for not promptly updating the tricks of the criminals to guide and warn people to avoid, leading to loss of money, so it partially accepted the lawsuit request of Ms. Tran Thi Chuc, forcing Techcombank to be responsible for compensating Ms. Chuc for damages in the amount of 800 million VND.

Similarly, Vietcombank was also held responsible for compensating Ms. Chuc in the amount of 700 million VND.

Sharing with VietNamNet reporter, lawyer Le Ngoc Ha (the person protecting Ms. Chuc's rights) said that he and Ms. Chuc did not agree with the entire Civil Appeal Judgment announced by the People's Court of Bac Ninh province.

According to lawyer Ha, Ms. Tran Thi Chuc will submit a petition to the Chief Justice of the High People's Court in Hanoi and the Chief Prosecutor of the High People's Procuracy in Hanoi to review the First Instance Judgment of the Tu Son City People's Court and the Appeal Judgment of the Bac Ninh Provincial People's Court according to the supervisory review procedure.

The case of a customer losing 26.5 billion at VCB and TCB: TCB is not at fault, the customer burst into tears . The court rejected Ms. Chuc's appeal, accepted Techcombank's appeal and the Procuracy's protest, declaring that Techcombank does not have to compensate any of the 14.6 billion VND that the customer lost because the bank was "not at fault".