Police took statements from the subjects

At 2:40 p.m. on September 6, 2025, the Criminal Police Department received a report from Kim Long Ward Police that Ms. HTT (71 years old, residing in Trieu Son Dong residential group, Hoa Chau ward) had her property defrauded by a group of fraudsters.

Ms. T. (owner of a building materials store) reported that she was approached by a person with a Southern accent, who introduced himself as a worker driving an excavator and had just dug up a ceramic jar containing a valuable "antique", including a bunch of bananas and a golden areca branch. The scammer showed the "antique" to Ms. T. and said that someone had offered 24 million VND but had not sold it yet. He then offered to exchange the "antique" for the gold ring Ms. T. was wearing. Believing her, Ms. T. agreed and the subject took away the ring worth 5,000 USD.

Realizing that this was not just a single scam but a mobile inter-provincial criminal group operating with sophisticated tricks, Colonel Ho Xuan Phuong, Deputy Director of the City Police, directed a plan to solve the case quickly. All factors pointed to a race against time, because if delayed, the scammers would quickly move to another location.

The Criminal Police Department mobilized all its forces, coordinated smoothly with professional departments and police of related communes and wards to synchronously deploy many investigation measures. In less than 3 hours, the functional forces identified the location and organized a plan to arrest the group of subjects when they were hiding at a motel on Nguyen Tat Thanh Street (Thanh Thuy Ward).

The arrested subjects include: Nguyen Khanh Duy (born in 1983, residing in Tay Ninh province); Phan Van Duc (born in 1990, residing in Ho Chi Minh City); Nguyen Huu Nhon (born in 1983, residing in Tay Ninh province); Phan Vu Truong (born in 1986, residing in Tay Ninh province).

During the investigation, the suspects confessed to all their methods of operation. Specifically, they ordered yellow metal objects shaped like banana bunches (VND 1.4 million) and areca branches (VND 700,000) on the TikTok application. Then, they used soil and sand to disguise them as "antiques" that they had just dug up. This group often went to provinces and cities, targeting the elderly and gullible people to trick them into selling or exchanging "antiques" for gold jewelry. If the victims did not have cash, they would exchange the jewelry they were wearing, then take it and sell it for money to spend.

Using this method, Nguyen Huu Nhon and Phan Vu Truong successfully carried out two other scams in the city. The seized items included 12 bunches of bananas and 10 areca branches made of yellow metal, 4 motorbikes, 6 mobile phones, 1 yellow metal ring and 18.3 million VND.

During the extended investigation, Duc and Nhon confessed that using the above methods, they had committed two other frauds to appropriate property in Da Nang City and Gia Lai Province.

The incident is a warning to people, especially the elderly, to be extremely vigilant with offers and solicitations about "antiques" or rare items of unknown origin.

News and photos: MINH NGUYEN

Source: https://huengaynay.vn/chinh-tri-xa-hoi/phap-luat-cuoc-song/ba-gio-truy-bat-nhom-lua-dao-ban-co-vat-gia-lien-tinh-157551.html