In a judgement delivered on Monday, July 16, two Nigerian men, Onu Chinonso Peter,33 and Ihugba Augustine Chinonso, have been arrested, charged and sentenced to 12 and 16 years in prison for defrauding $130,000 from the Vietnamese women they befriended online. They were charged for appropriating property through swindling.
Six of their accomplices was also sentenced to between 8 and 20 years in jail, for forging seals and documents of agencies and organisations, by The Ho Chi Minh City People's court. The defendants were also ordered to return all the swindled money to their victims.
The Nigerian men set up fake accounts on social networks, befriended Vietnamese women and promised to send them cash and expensive gifts. Their Vietnamese accomplices pretended to be employees from delivery companies, police officers or customs officers and demanded that the women transfer customs fees, delivery fees to their bank accounts.
The accomplices keep 15-25 percent of the money after each successful scam while the rest was sent to Chinonso.
The gang was exposed after one of their victims named Chau, reported her case to the police in February 2016.
Chu reported that she became friends with a foreigner who claimed to be British on Facebook, in January. The man promised to send her $100,000 in cash and other expensive gifts a month later.
In February, Chau received a call from a woman who claimed to be calling from a delivery company, asking her to pay a $1,200 and a VND80 million ($3,500) customs fee for a gift from overseas, she paid. The woman claimed she had not received the money and Chau sent her another VND112 million.
She became suspicious and called the municipal police for help when a man who claimed to be an officer from Hanoi's economic police, told her to pay a VND200 million as her package contained a large amount of cash. The police quickly identified the fake police officer and arrested him and his wife.
After further investigations, police unveiled the entire gang and concluded that in addition to Chau, they also scammed 10 more women out of almost VND3 billion ($130,000).
During the trial which held on Monday, most of the defendants admitted to their crimes. Chinonso confessed under torture. The court dismissed the claims.
Stay out of trouble.
No comments:
Post a Comment