Vietnam police bust Hanoi-based phone scam ring targeting S.Koreans in S.Korea

The Hanoi Department of Public Security on Friday said its Immigration Management Division was finalizing legal procedures to handle the foreign suspects linked to a high-tech fraud network that had been operating covertly in the city.

According to initial reports, the division, in coordination with other specialized units, conducted a large-scale inspection and residency check across Hanoi on Thursday evening.

During the operation, officers simultaneously raided two villas in the upscale Splendora urban area in Son Dong Commune, where they detained a group of foreign nationals suspected of operating an organized cyber fraud scheme.

The suspects included seven South Korean citizens and one Chinese citizen.

All were staying at the properties but failed to present passports or valid visas as required by law.

Investigators said the villas had been converted into makeshift command centers, equipped with numerous electronic devices actively used in the scam operations.

Police sealed and seized 17 laptops, 14 tablets, and 25 mobile phones to serve the investigation.

Further inquiries revealed that the suspects had deliberately hidden their passports at another location.

Later that night, another police team searched an apartment in an urban area of Tay Mo Ward in Hanoi, where they discovered a Chinese national hiding seven passports matching the identities of the suspects staying in Splendora.

Police said the individual showed evasive behavior and attempted to dispose of evidence in an effort to obstruct verification by authorities.

At the police station, one of the South Korean suspects, Kang Dae Hyeon, admitted that his group had entered Vietnam not for tourism but to participate in an online fraud scheme targeting South Koreans in South Korea.

Based on initial statements, the group used high-tech equipment in Vietnam to place scam calls to South Korea.

Posing as consultants, the suspects contacted victims to build trust before attempting to steal their personal information or persuade them to transfer money under pre-arranged scam scenarios.

The information obtained was then passed to other members of the network to carry out further steps to appropriate assets, investigators said.

Police said the group deliberately chose gated urban areas with tight security in Vietnam as their base of operations to evade detection by law enforcement authorities in both countries.

Hanoi police are continuing to expand the investigation to clarify the role of each suspect and are coordinating with relevant agencies to handle the case in accordance with Vietnamese law.