A building in Cambodia was raided, with 30 suspects fleeing. Meanwhile, at Neipai Airport and Xinshan Airport, 26 newly entered suspects were controlled on the spot by plainclothes police.
Several criminal suspects were subdued by the police
In September 2024, the Criminal Police Department of the Public Security Bureau of Hejing Province, Vietnam, while investigating the case of 155 telephone fraud suspects in the "Golden Triangle", received multiple reports of Bitcoin investment scams conducted through the UNISAT application and "TikTok tasks". Some families fell into financial difficulties due to the victims' belief in false promises.
The task force confirmed that the victims were set up by a transnational criminal organization. The gang, about 200 strong, is headquartered in a high-rise building in the Philippines, disguised as a company operating games. Although the online games had previously obtained local government permission, they were actually providing cover for the scam gang.
"They come to the office every day, turn on the computers to make scam calls, luring victims into the trap. When law enforcement checks, they close the application and open games pretending to operate to cover up their actions," a police officer said.
According to a scout, the gang operates scams across Asia, with a Chinese boss behind the scenes paying for the office location and operational staff. In each country, they appoint locals to take charge. In the Vietnamese branch, about 60 people voluntarily joined, all attracted by the promise of "high-paying, easy work," with no one forced.
The gang's overall leader is Nguyễn Thế Anh, 29 years old, from Yên Bái Province, fluent in Chinese. Nguyen The Anh joined the transnational criminal organization in early 2023, daily instructing his subordinates to use the method of "Vietnamese scamming Vietnamese," contacting and deceiving Vietnamese through fake social media accounts to invest in virtual currencies and "TikTok tasks."
Under the guise of "successful businessmen," they mainly target single Vietnamese women, first understanding their personalities and preferences, and once the relationship becomes close, they invite them to "accumulate wealth for the future." Initially, the scam gang lets the victims "win a few times" through virtual currency investments or similar TikTok Shop trading platforms, earning millions of Vietnamese dong. Then, they lure the victims to continue investing, create system failures, and invent various reasons for the victims to recharge their accounts, pay taxes, etc., until the victims can no longer continue.
The Director of the Criminal Police Department of Hejing Province Public Security Bureau, Colonel Nguyen Phi Hai, stated that scouts conducted online investigations and traveled to various provinces to verify the information provided by the victims. After three months of effort, they finally "cracked" the operation mode of the gang.
The gang in the Philippines, consisting of 200 members, includes 56 Vietnamese suspects, commanded by The Anh. If they encounter "difficult to scam" situations, they consult the Chinese boss.
The leadership of Hejing Province Public Security Bureau collaborated with the Ministry of Public Security and traveled to the Philippines to share criminal information about the gang with the local government. By the end of 2024, the Philippine government stopped issuing online gaming licenses, and the police frequently inspected, raided, and expelled. Sensing the danger, The Anh's Vietnamese suspect gang moved to Phnom Penh.
A group of scammers who defrauded billions of Vietnamese dong were caught at the airport
In Phnom Penh, Nguyen The Anh's gang was arranged by the Chinese boss to live concentratedly in a two-story building surrounded by barbed wire and heavily guarded. The area is a special zone with thousands of people working. It is very difficult to determine the specific room and floor where the criminal gang is hiding. Scouts spent months undercover, disguised as locals to understand the building layout and collect evidence.
In January 2025, the identities of Nguyen The Anh and 55 suspects were identified. Hejing Province Public Security Bureau went to Cambodia, cooperating with the Ministry of Public Security and relevant Cambodian departments to devise a "net closing" plan. However, by then, 26 suspects had already returned to Vietnam by air for the New Year, leaving 30 in Cambodia. The task force decided to simultaneously raid in the special zone of Phnom Penh, Neipai Airport, and Xinshan Airport.
"We must act simultaneously to prevent the suspects from reacting. If not simultaneous, they would notify each other and escape, and months of effort would be wasted," a scout said.
In mid-January, in Phnom Penh, when it was confirmed that 30 suspects were working on the first floor of a two-story building in the special zone, hundreds of scouts raided from multiple directions. Once exposed, the suspects shut down their computers, discarded their phones and documents, and tried to blend into the crowd to escape, but were controlled by law enforcement.
"We issued arrest warrants based on portraits and complete information, and many suspects were surprised, saying they did not expect to be arrested by Vietnamese public security for committing crimes abroad," investigators said.
In one operation, the task force arrested 30 people and seized multiple phones, computers, and documents.
Meanwhile, at Neipai and Xinshan Airports, hundreds of plainclothes police divided into multiple groups, cooperating with airport security personnel to "low-key solve the case." Once a suspect completed the entry procedures, scouts immediately followed and controlled them within seconds, confiscating phones and other evidence to prevent them from contacting each other.
According to scouts, the two raids at Neipai and Xinshan Airports were completed within one day, as the members of the criminal gang were dispersed on multiple flights. The control time for each suspect ranged from a few seconds to two minutes, with most feeling bewildered, saying they did not expect to be caught. Some claimed to be "wronged," but when the police presented evidence and photos on the arrest warrants, they bowed their heads and admitted guilt, acknowledging "I was wrong."
"Solving cases at the airport is very complex, and we must ensure not to cause chaos. We designed many arrest scenarios to catch the suspects off guard while avoiding alarming other passengers," scouts said.
Colonel Nguyen Phi Hai stated that the biggest difficulty in this case was collecting criminal evidence of Nguyen The Anh's gang against the reporting victims. The farther the victims lived, the farther the criminal gang hid, with air distances exceeding 2000 kilometers, making the operation very complex. Many police officers had to leave their homes for months, staying abroad undercover to solve the case.
The investigative agency charged that by the time it was dismantled, Nguyen The Anh's gang had defrauded over 1000 Vietnamese victims, embezzling billions of Vietnamese dong. On average, each suspect defrauded hundreds of victims, with the highest single victim loss exceeding 20 billion Vietnamese dong.
Currently, Nguyen The Anh and 55 others are charged with property embezzlement under Article 174 of the Penal Code, have been prosecuted, detained, and are prohibited from leaving their residence.
