PHU THO: Police in the northern province of Phu Tho said on Thursday (June 18) they have charged four people, including a Chinese national, over a suspected plot to relocate an online scam operation from Cambodia to Vietnam.
The case began when officers identified a group with alleged ties to foreign-run online fraud rings operating in Cambodia that investigators said were preparing to shift their operations into Vietnam amid intensified crackdown by the neighbouring country's authorities.
The ringleader of the plot was identified as Zhao Wei Zhong, 37, a Chinese national who police said entered Vietnam on instructions from an associate based overseas.
According to investigators, his assignment was to line up housing and other logistics ahead of an expected influx of employees from fraudulent companies based in Cambodia.
Police said Zhao had previously worked at Chinese-run scam operations in Cambodia, where he became acquainted with two Vietnamese nationals – Tran Thi Thu Huong, 24, and Dình Nam, 27 – both residents of the northern province of Bac Ninh.
After arriving in Vietnam, Zhao recruited the pair to help with translation, driving and scouting locations to house the foreign workers once they crossed into the country, police said.
Investigators also identified 43-year-old Hanoi resident Nguyen Thanh Long as having helped arrange logistics in support of the plan.
Police said they detected and dismantled the operation before the group could complete the transfer of personnel from Cambodia, preventing the scam centre from ever becoming operational on Vietnamese soil.
On June 17, following an evidence-gathering process, police in Phu Th filed charges against Zhao, Huong and Long for organising the illegal stay of foreigners in Vietnam, and ordered all three held in pretrial detention.
Nam was charged with the same offence, but was placed under a movement restriction order, a less severe measure that bars him from leaving his place of residence pending further proceedings, rather than being in custody.
At properties linked to the suspects, police also seized 73 computers, 134 mobile phones, 34 USB drives, 20 Wi-Fi routers and other gear that was allegedly intended for the scam call centre. — Vietnam News/ANN
