A Vietnamese woman was duped into transferring VND366.5 million (over US$16,000) to a self-claimed U.S. military official she met on Facebook.

D.T.C., 53, a resident of Cat Tien District, Lam Dong Province in Vietnam’s Central Highlands, reportedly befriended a Facebook user under the name of Addison Jacob on December 12 before exchanging messages in Vietnamese with the self-claimed 42-year-old U.S. military official stationed in Kabul, Afghanistan.

Saying he was single and would return from duty in two months, the man proposed to C. and asked her to join him in the U.S. after his discharge, an invitation she found irresistible.

On December 28, the man texted C. asking for her phone number and home address, informing her that a package containing his property in Kabul would be sent the following day.

He said the package included $350,000 in cash and a number of valuable gifts he had bought for her.

C. was also told that a consignee fee might be applied when she received the package.

On December 30, a Vietnamese female voice called C., introducing herself as an employee of the courier service and asking her for VND366.5 million in order to receive a package from Afghanistan.

Believing that the package was worth many times more than the fee, C. transferred the sum to three different bank accounts as requested by the ‘employee’.

Each account was registered under the name Pham Thi Thu Ha.

After she completed the transactions, the package never arrived and C. made several failed attempts to reach the female employee before she realized that she had been scammed.

Cat Tien District police are looking into the case.

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