Police in Ho Chi Minh City have arrested a ring that swindled VND100 million ($4,800) after claiming they needed the money to release locked-up cash worth billions of US dollars.

>> Three men face prosecution for $72 bln treasure scam >> Man seized in $900 billion treasure scam On January 12, police in HCMC’s District 10 said they have detained Tran Thanh Cao, 41, his girlfriend Phung Thi Minh Thuy, 23, Pham Van Ba, 54, and Tran Xuan Ba, 49. Before being arrested, Pham Van Ba lived in Thu Duc Distrrict while all the other three lived in District 2.

They have been charged with “swindling to appropriate assets.” In January 2014, the police in District 10 received an accusation letter from a man, H.A, of Ca Mau province, who accused Cao and Thuy of cheating him off VND100 million (US$4,800). A said that in July 2013, Cao and Thuy introduced themselves as people who were entrusted by a “secret” organization to sell old dollar banknotes worth billions of US dollars that were issued in 1928 and 1934. However, such old banknotes were kept in storage by that organization and in order to bring them out for sale, Cao and Thuy said they had to pay a large deposit, which they could not afford. Therefore, the couple asked A to give them VND100 million as a contribution to the required deposit.

They promised to reward A with VND4 billion within 30 days of receiving the VND100 million from A.

Attracted by an extremely high profit in the deal, A agreed. On July 17, 2013, A and the couple met at a café on Le Hong Phong Street in District 10, where A handed VND100 million to the couple and received from them a number of US banknotes denominated in 100, 1,000 and even 1 million dollars. A later brought the banknotes to a bank for examination and was told that all of them were fake. A then reported the case to police.      Meanwhile, after the 30-day duration was over, the couple asked A to try to wait for some more time.    On January 9, 2014, the couple phoned A asking him to give them an additional amount of VND300 million.  At 3 pm the same day, when A met Cao, Thuy and Ba at a café, the police rushed in to arrest the swindlers and seized from them many fake US dollar banknotes with face values of $100 and $1 million, a laptop. From their testimonies, police later seized Tran Xuan Ba.