Putuo County Police, Shanghai (China) have just broken up a fraud case related to organizing a concert. Suspect Co has been approved an arrest warrant by the prosecution agency on charges of fraud.
On the afternoon of April 26, a woman surnamed Tran came to the police station to report, saying that she had been defrauded of more than 1.8 million CNY (about 7 billion VND) with the promise to help arrange for Ta Dinh Phong to organize a concert.
According to the testimony, Ms. Tran met a man surnamed Co through a friend in October 2023. This person claimed to be the son of a high-ranking official and boasted of having many relationships in society. Initially, Ms. Tran only considered him a normal friend.
At the end of February 2025, during a meal, Ms. Tran said that she wanted to do business in the field of concert organization and asked Co if he could help contact Ta Dinh Phong. This person immediately agreed, saying that he knew the son of a entertainment company owner named Le and could arrange everything through this relationship.
Initially, Ms. Tran was still suspicious. However, after Co sent messages believed to be conversations with the Le family, Ms. Tran gradually trusted him. After that, he asked her to transfer 1 million CNY for "work expenses".
At the end of March 2025, Ms. Tran transferred the above amount to the account of the man surnamed Co many times, and then said she wanted to go with him to Beijing to finalize the cooperation. However, Co always went alone, saying that the "tycoon" did not like to meet strangers and affirmed that everything was about to be resolved.
Co also used the excuse of needing to buy branded watches as a meeting gift to ask Ms. Tran for hundreds of thousands of RMB more.
A few months later, the concert was still not held. Trying to continue to use many reasons to delay, Ms. Tran realized she had been deceived and reported to the police.
Through investigation, the police discovered that the identity, background and degrees that this man claimed were all fake. Co also had no relationship with people in the entertainment industry as mentioned. The text messages presented as evidence were actually forged by him using photo editing software.
On May 27, police arrested Co at his hiding place in another province. After being arrested, Co confessed to all his actions.
According to his confession, initially Co fabricated himself as "the son of a high-ranking official" to satisfy his vanity. When he learned that Ms. Tran wanted to invite the star to organize a concert, Co became greedy, and continued to fabricate stories about having relationships in the entertainment industry and getting acquainted with Ta Dinh Phong's assistant.
During his time in Beijing, Co used the defrauded money to party and drink alcohol at karaoke bars, and also texted lies that he was meeting with artist assistants and famous people in the industry to discuss work.
Police determined that the entire amount of more than 1.8 million CNY that Co defrauded was used for personal spending.
Currently, the man surnamed Co has been approved an arrest warrant by the Pho Da district prosecutor's office on charges of fraud. The case is still under further investigation.
