On December 30, Buon Ma Thuot City Police, Dak Lak Province, informed that the unit has just issued a decision to prosecute and temporarily detain Pham Quang Tuan (37 years old), residing in Hai Duong Province.
Tuan had fraudulently sold agricultural products on Zalo, appropriating nearly 100 million VND. According to the initial investigation, Tuan worked as a porter for vegetable and root traders in Gia Loc district, Hai Duong province.
On September 10, Tuan learned that Ms. H (41 years old), who sells vegetables and tubers at Tan Hoa wholesale market, Buon Ma Thuot city, needed to buy agricultural products.
From there, Tuan had the idea of defrauding and appropriating property. To gain trust, Tuan used his phone number to create an account on the Zalo application under the name "Lao Cai Agricultural Products".
After that, Ms. H contacted Tuan to mention that she needed to buy half a container truck containing lettuce, cauliflower, and carrots. Tuan confirmed to Ms. H that he had the above items and that they were in Lao Cai province.
To create more trust, Tuan uploaded pictures of vegetables online and sent them to Ms. H. Tuan said he would sell half a container truck for 128 million VND and asked Ms. H to deposit 88 million VND.
After receiving the deposit, Tuan immediately deleted the Zalo account "Nong San Lao Cai" and blocked Ms. H's phone number. Tuan used the embezzled money for personal expenses and to pay off debts.
