Six Taiwanese nationals and six Vietnamese citizens have been detained on charges of extorting money by pretending to be police officers investigating criminal cases.
Confirming the arrests, police in the central province of Quang Nam said on Monday that they cooperated with relevant agencies in Ho Chi Minh City and the neighboring Tay Ninh Province to detain the 12 people they believe were involved in perpetrating a phone scam.
The Taiwanese gang of phony police scam are being held in police station pending further investigation. Photo by VnExpress/Viet Pham |
They said that the Taiwanese men have confessed that they were sent by accomplices in Taiwan to Vietnam to conspire with some Vietnamese citizens to swindle people out of billions of Vietnamese dong.
The Taiwanese gang entered Vietnam early in May on tourist visas and persuaded six Vietnamese men to help them open accounts in local banks.
Initial investigations show that the gang gathered personal information on Vietnamese citizens through social media networks. Then, they called the victims and pretended to be police officers investigating criminal cases.
The fake police officers accused the victims of being involved in drug smuggling and money laundering and tricked them into wiring money into a “safe” bank account.
The Vietnamese suspects later withdrew money from the accounts they had opened in local commercial banks and transferred them to the Taiwanese scammers.
Six Vietnamese men who have been detained on suspicion of cooperating with Taiwanese scammers to extort money from other Vietnamese citizens. Photo by VnExpress/Viet Pham |
The Quang Nam police confirmed that the Taiwanese men had fraudulently appropriated VND7 billion ($306,700) over the past two months.
They began investigating the case after receiving a tip-off from a Vietnamese victim in Dai Loc District, Quang Nam Province who was swindled for around VND2 billion.
She was just one of many victims, and the police have called on others to come forward and assist with the ongoing investigation.