According to investigations from local police, 37 suspects aged between 17-25 have pretended to be bank employees to swindle over VND 30 billion from thousands of people nationwide via Facebook accounts.
The group rented seven apartments at a building in Gia Lam District and two houses in My Duc District to operate their scams. Searching these locations, police found and seized 28 sets of computers, 31 Internet broadcasting devices, 43 mobile phones of all kinds, 18 bank cards, 61 phone sim cards and many objects and documents related to their activities.
Police found and seized many objects and documents related to their activities.
The group leader has been identified as Tran Van Manh, 21. Some active members included Tran Van Sy, 21, Tran Long Vu, 21, Tran Van Dat, 25, and Nguyen Ba Tuan, 19. They were all from Bac Giang Province.
According to Senior Colonel Tran Huy Viet, Head of the Cybersecurity and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department under Bac Giang Provincial Police, the group used tricks to acquire virtual Facebook accounts and used internet-based applications to run ads to increase interactions on their accounts. They then pretended to be employees of various banks and post advertisements on loan packages with preferential interest rates to many online money lending groups to cheat lenders.
To create the trust of people who need to borrow money, the group played many roles of consultant, customer care, and document appraiser, among other roles, to advise and prepare loan documents. They then request people who need to borrow money to send various fees such as disbursement fees and loan insurance fees to them.
Some victims sent the group as much as VND200 million as fees for the promised loans but then found themselves cheated as the group cut contact and disappeared.
Thousands of people nationwide have admitted to becoming victims of the group and claimed losses of over VND30 billion.
Bac Giang Police have detained 31 suspects as they carried out further investigations into the case.
