Vietnam woman fishes for victims with fake seafood sale on Facebook
Tuesday, December 10, 2019, 16:22 GMT+7
Police in the north-central province of Thanh Hoa on Monday announced they had arrested a woman accused of fraud after she set up fake Facebook accounts posing as a seafood dealer to scam multiple victims.
The police bureau of Sam Son District in Thanh Hoa said they launched an investigation into the alleged fraud following a report by a female victim against Nguyen Thi Thu Thuong, 32, who lives in the northern province of Quang Ninh.
According to the victim’s allegation, she ordered 1.4 metric tons of pilot fish through a Facebook account named ‘Trang Pham’ for VND168 million (US$7,250).
The account owner demanded that she make a down payment of VND60 million ($2,600), but she never received her ordered fish nor was she able to contact the account after making the deposit via bank transfer.
Thuong has admitted to creating two Facebook accounts, namely Trang Pham and Nguyen Gioi, to join seafood trading groups on the social network, posing as a seafood dealer.
She would upload photos found on the Internet to these groups to fish for buyers.
When someone asked to buy her seafood, Thuong would forge delivery receipts and send them to her victims to convince them to make up-front payments.
By employing such tricks, Thuong was able to loot over VND83.5 million ($3,600) from three different victims in Hanoi, Thanh Hoa and the Mekong Delta province of Ben Tre.
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