Quang Ninh police held a press briefing a few days ago to announce the breakup of a transnational telecom scam and money-laundering ring. The case started back in early February when eight locals walked into a station to report losing 1.6 billion Vietnamese dong. Investigators followed the trail and managed to dismantle a deeply hidden syndicate.
The gang bought ready-made personal data through Telegram channels, filtered and categorized the leads, and then tailored scripts for specific targets. During phone calls, they would impersonate bank loan officers one minute and police officers the next. Armed with detailed info that left victims completely bewildered, they would eventually trick them into transferring money. Once the cash was in hand, they used purchased bank accounts to collect it and quickly converted it into USDT cryptocurrency to launder the funds. To dodge police, the gang moved around across multiple provinces, renting apartments and guesthouses as hideouts and hitting and running.
The crackdown involved a major raid. Police seized 83 mobile phones, seven laptops, over 200 million dong in cash, and more than 3,000 USDT tokens, arresting 21 suspects in total. Local media reported that the syndicate's victims span the entire country, numbering in the thousands, with total scam amounts exceeding one trillion Vietnamese dong. Amidst the endless stream of motorbikes buzzing down the streets, who would have thought that inside some rented rooms, people were hammering away at keyboards running operations like this.
