Fraudster impersonates students abroad on Facebook, cons families out of $72,700

On June 3, a 57-year-old woman, whose identity is not revealed, in Hoa Khanh Ward complained to them that she received a message purportedly on the Facebook account of her daughter, who is studying in the U.S., asking her to transfer money to invest in a business.

Not suspecting anything to be amiss, she transferred VND680 million (US$26,000) to an account provided in that message.

After receiving the funds, the account cut her off.

The Da Nang police launched an investigation and identified Nguyen Viet Hoang, 26, of the central Quang Tri Province as the culprit.

After being arrested, he admitted to using multiple SIM cards to register fake Facebook accounts, complete with names and profile photos matching those of Vietnamese students abroad.

At first, he would make video calls and send messages from these accounts to gain the trust of the students' families.

He would then claim there were problems with the network and switch to chat messages, using scripted scenarios to persuade people to transfer money for currency exchange or investment.

He would even send fabricated screenshots of successful money-transfer receipts.

Between January and June this year he carried out dozens of these scams in a number of provinces.

In Da Nang alone, two people lost a combined VND1.3 billion, meaning he had swindle at least VND1.9 billion from three victims.

The police have called on other victims to come forward and lodge complaints.