On Wednesday, the Da Nang People’s Court sentenced 41-year-old Ping Sanshi and 28-year-old Hao Yanjun, both from China, to 10 and 9 years in prison respectively.  Both were charged with ‘using computer networks, telecommunications networks, internet, or digital devices to misappropriate other’s assets’.

Hao Yanjun (left) and Ping Sanshi at the trial (Photo: Tuoitrenews)

According to the specific indictment by the local prosecutors, Hao partnered with an unidentified Thai woman in early 2015 who mentored him in counterfeiting visa cards. Ping was the Director of a Chinese-invested tourism company operating in Viet Nam, and he became acquainted with Hao late 2015.

In January 2016, due to its business losses, Ping’s company owed the Ky Nghi Da Nang company (DN Vacation Co Ltd) 510,000 Yuan (worth about 74,000 USD).  At that time, Hao said that he could use counterfeit bank cards to steal cash from others' bank accounts with the help of software and digital devices.  Taking advantage of this, Ping paid Hao 10 million VND (440 USD) to contact theThai woman to get credit card information stolen from card holders.  The trio hatched the bank card scheme together.

In April 2016, Ping and Hao used forged visa cards to withdraw the money to pay off Ping’s debts via an electronic data capture (EDC) machine from the city’s branch of Vietcombank.  However, the branch quickly detected suspicious transactions and alerted the local police.  By the time the police detected the fraud and arrested the Chinese duo, they had conducted 15 successful transactions totalling around 225 million VND (10,000USD).  The appropriated money was wired to the account of the DN Vacation company's Director as payment for the debts.

At the trial, the 2 Chinese fraudsters admitted that they initially intended to illegally appropriate a total of nearly 470 million VND (22,243 USD) via 29 transactions.