The central Da Nang City People’s Court yesterday tried three Chinese men with Malaysian citizenship who had used fake payment cards to purchase goods at shops and trade centers in Vietnam.

>> Malaysian jailed 7 years for using fake credit cards >> Chinese nationals use fake credit cards to steal money Wong Kar Wai, 31, Ling Seng Koey, 24, and Chong Kon Hoi, 48, were charged with using computer networks, telecommunications systems, the Internet or digital equipment to conducts acts of appropriating assets of others.

Considering the level of their offenses, the court sentenced Wong to five years and six months in jail, Ling to five years in prison, and Chong to three years and six months imprisonment. According to the indictment, in April 2012, the three men met a man named Kent, whose origin has been not identified, in the Malaysia capital, Kuala Lumpur.

Kent gave the men 60 fake payment cards and two fake passports with the names Sim Chee Wei, of Hong Kong nationality, and Verasut Nam Wong, of Singaporean citizenship. Kent asked the three men to go to Vietnam and use these cards and passports to buy goods from shops and trade centers and then re-sell the purchased goods.  The money made from this would be taken back to Malaysia and shared among them. Over July and August 2012, Wai and Koey used these fake cards 11 times to buy goods in Hanoi, Da Nang and Ho Chi Minh City. They targeted high-tech products including laptops, iPods and iPads, but also purchased jewelry such as gold rings, necklaces and wristwatches. On August 4, 2012, when Wai and Koey visited the Indochina Trade Center in Da Nang to buy goods, they were caught using fake payment cards and passports. From the two men’s testimonies, police arrested Hoi later.  The total value of the goods the three swindlers had bought is VND325 million (US$15,450).

A similar case was tried in April when Malaysian man Lim Soon Ling, 55, was sentenced to seven years’ imprisonment by the HCMC People’s Court for using fake credit cards to appropriate a total of VND451 million ($21,700).

According to the verdict, Lim entered Vietnam from May to July in 2011 with two fake passports and 50 fake credit cards provided by another Malaysian culprit named A Tai, who is the mastermind of the cheating. A Tai has not been grabbed.

Lim was promised to get 15 percent of the sum of money withdrawn from banks.

From May 20 to July 11, Lim made 14 transactions with local banks by ten fake credit cards and withdrew $19,000 and over VND56 million ($2,700) in cash.