Vietnamese hacker arrested for infiltrating banking system to appropriate $420,000

Duong Minh Tam, 27, is under investigation for using computer networks, telecommunications networks, the internet and digital devices to appropriate property. His arrest came after police received a report from a bank in HCMC on June 21.

Investigators said at the end of last year, Tam opened a payment account at the bank, which has not been revealed.

The man downloaded the bank's app to his phone, then opened an online savings book worth VND1 million.

According to the bank's regulations, customers can mortgage a savings book to borrow online up to 85% of the value, but not exceeding VND2 billion per turn.

Under the current regulations, Tam can only borrow a maximum of VND850,000. However, he was accused of infiltrating the bank's financial system and using tricks to increase the value of his online savings book to more than VND51 trillion.

From May 23 to June 9, Tam withdrew money from the banking system seven times, transferring to his personal account for a total of more than VND10.5 billion, investigators said.

Of which, he transferred VND500 million to the bank while he appropriated the rest.

Tam told the police he had withdrawn VND6.5 billion from his account for personal spending and buying virtual money.