The police seize the suspects in the transnational fraud ring. — Photo vietnamnet.vn

HÀ NỘI — A transnational fraud group involving more than 40 suspects, which defrauded and appropriated property of more than 1,000 victims nationwide, has been arrested by the police.

The special investigation was led by the Lai Châu Provincial Police, in coordination with the Criminal Police Department under the Ministry of Public Security, the representative office of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security in Lao, the General Department of Police together with the Department for Prevention and Combat of Trafficking in Persons under the Lao Ministry of Public Security.

Several months earlier, through monitoring of the online environment, detectives from the Criminal Police Division of Lai Châu Provincial Police detected a group of dozens of Vietnamese nationals, previously operating in another country, who had recently moved their base to Laos to carry out fraud.

Hà Văn Hiếu, 23, residing in Yên Sơn Commune, the northern province Tuyên Quang Province, with suspicious movements and numerous irregularities in his finances, is suspected of playing the ringleader’s role.

The group mainly worked in Tonpheung Commune, Bokeo Province, Laos.

On July 17, the Ministry of Public Security dispatched a task force of eight officers from the Lai Châu Provincial Police, led by Colonel Phạm Hải Đăng, deputy director of the provincial police, to Laos for coordination in breaking the case.

In Vientiane, the Lai Châu Provincial Police task force, together with the representative office of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security in Laos and the Lao police, agreed on a plan and synchronously deploy operational measures to directly attack the hideout of the criminal group.

From July 13-20, director of the Lai Châu Provincial Police sent three task forces totalling 20 officers to Laos to coordinate in prosecuting the special investigation and arresting the suspects.

Lieutenant General Kongsavat Bounlieng, Deputy Minister and concurrently director of the General Department of Police, and Major General Saly Phoutthavong, deputy director of the General Department of Police, Lao Ministry of Public Security, directed local police to closely coordinate with the Vietnamese police task force to implement the case-breaking plan.

Exposing trick

Colonel Vũ Tiến Văn, head of the Criminal Police Division of Lai Châu Provincial Police, said that from around April this year, the suspects had taken advantage of the policy of tuition exemption and health insurance support for primary, junior secondary and high school students to construct a fraud scenario, directly targeting parents and students.

On July 19-20, the police of the two countries raided the ring location in Tonpheung Commune.

Preliminary classification showed that among those arrested were many suspects with prior criminal records, one suspect who was under wanted status, and 16 suspects who tested positive for drugs.

The suspects confessed to having rented houses in Tonpheung Commune, installed computer systems and telecommunications equipment, and organised online fraud under the cover of insurance staff.

Every day, they used virtual switchboards to call numbers from existing data on students and parents. They informed those they called that they needed to update information on VNeID (the national ID app of Việt Nam), linking their social security and health insurance accounts to the parents’ bank accounts.

After establishing trust, the suspects sent fake QR codes, described as “file codes”, and asked the victims to scan them to complete the linking. In reality, this operation enabled them to gain access or carry out transactions, thereby appropriating money from the victims’ bank accounts.

Preliminarily, the police determined that from early last month until their arrest, the group had defrauded more than 1,000 victims in numerous provinces and cities nationwide, appropriating over VNĐ5 billion (US$189,900). — VNS