Saigon waiter arrested for swiping $26,400 from Japanese customer

By Hoang Nam   October 10, 2017 | 09:26 pm PT
He allegedly stole the businessman's credit card details and went on a spending spree back in 2015.

A Vietnamese man was arrested on Wednesday for allegedly stealing VND600 million ($26,400) from a Japanese customer’s bank account after copying his credit card details when he was paying for a meal in 2015.

Nguyen Hoang Duc Nha, 27, is facing charges of property appropriation.

An investigation found that Nha then used the credit card details of Japanese businessman Wada Yoshiyuki to pay for dozens of online transactions over the next five months. Most of the money was spent on movie tickets, cellphones and online card games.

The Japanese man only noticed that money was going missing from his account in early 2016, and reported it to Vietnamese police.

Vietnam has been trying to switch from cash to cards in recent years, but the convenient payment method is not always secure.

In August last year, an Australian tourist was charged $30,360 for a dinner that cost less than $1,000 at a restaurant in Saigon.

An investigation found that the restaurant’s manager had instructed a staff member to lie about a glitch in the system and ask for a second card from the tourist before swiping them both multiple times.

The manager allegedly withdrew all the extra money from a bank later. He was arrested last June on appropriation charges.

 
 
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