Taiwanese man among 5 suspects in another massive phone scam in Vietnam
Thanh Nien News
HO CHI MINH CITY - Monday, November 23, 2015 17:45
Liu Wei Chun, (second from left), 34, and four of her accomplices at a police station on Sunday. Photo: Dam Huy
Police in Ho Chi Minh City on Sunday arrested a Taiwanese man and four of his Vietnamese accomplices for allegedly scamming many people out of billions of dong.
Officers raided a house in Binh Chanh District, arresting two key members of the phone scam ring, Liu Wei Chun, 34, and his Vietnamese wife Duong Thi Nguyet, 33.
Three other suspects, aged 30 to 34, were taken into custody the same day.
Police said Nguyet’s ex-husband, also a member of the gang, is still at large.
The suspects admitted to several phone scams over the past year, swindling a large amount for money from different victims. It is not immediately clear how many have fallen for the scams.
Police said the gang often pretended to be police officers on the phone and asked their victims to transfer money into their accounts for investigation, police said.
In a recent case on November 17, they called a woman in Ho Chi Minh City, accusing her of involving in a major drug smuggling case and asking her to transfer more than VND400 million, or nearly US$18,000, for investigation.
Thinking that she would receive her money after she was cleared of the accusation, the woman sent the money.
Later she became suspicious and reported the case to the police.
Subsequent investigation led to the arrests of the five suspects, who had withdrawn VND250 million before police froze their accounts.
Several other gangs, using the similar tricks to cheat victims around Vietnam, have been busted since late last year, police said.
