Female mastermind behind US$40 mil fraud in Vietnam arrested

Three out of five main ringleaders, from left to right: Pham Thi Huyen Trang, Nguyen Van Manh, Do Van Nghia. - Bac Ninh Police Department via VNS/ANN

BAC NINH: A Vietnamese woman has been unmasked as a key mastermind in a massive VND1 trillion (US$40 million) scam network.

Pham Thị Huyen Trang, 26, operated out of Cambodia and played a senior managerial role, training scammers, designing highly manipulative scripts and coaching lower-ranking members to pose as police, tax officials and other authorities to steal money from thousands of Vietnamese victims.