Warning of virtual currency scams

VTV.vn - The cryptocurrency market has potential but also contains many risks because there is absolutely no floor price or ceiling price, leading to asset values ​​that can skyrocket or fall freely.

Cryptocurrency project scams investors

Once promised and hyped about a "made in Vietnam" e-wallet project, once promised to build a Vietnamese digital currency ecosystem, but it turns out that the Antex project is no different from other scams. About 30,000 investors have been robbed of an amount equivalent to about 117 billion from this project, according to data from Hanoi City police. The police force has recently continuously destroyed many fraudulent virtual currency projects, causing great losses to investors, including cases of appropriation of nearly 10,000 billion.

The "Antex digital currency" project of Nguyen Hoa Binh and other subjects with promises and commitments to build the "VNDT digital currency" ecosystem and VNDT e-wallet software "made in Vietnam".

Nguyen Hoa Binh and his associates secretly withdrew money from Antex's general wallet, transferred it to their personal wallets, and converted it to VND to share. The Hanoi police investigation agency determined that about 30,000 investors' wallets had money withdrawn, the total amount of money appropriated was extremely large.

In September, the Criminal Police Department ( Ministry of Public Security ) coordinated with Hanoi Police to destroy a fraud ring through the virtual currency project WorldMall.app. The subjects programmed their own applications, issued WM coins, organized seminars, broadcast live broadcasts, and even created images of "foreign" leaders to create trust. Committing to profits of 8-21%/year, attracting thousands of participants in just a few months. The investigation agency determined that this was a disguised Ponzi model, with later people's money being used to pay earlier people until the cash flow was broken.

Last August, Phu Tho Provincial Police coordinated with the Ministry of Public Security to dismantle a criminal group using PaynetCoin (PAYN) - an illegal multi-level project. Since 2021, this group has built a "pyramid reward" model, promising interest rates of 5-9%/month, allowing conversion to USD. The subjects claimed that PAYN was registered in the US and could pay for airline tickets and hotel reservations, but in reality, no agents accepted it. As a result, thousands of people fell into the trap, losing hundreds of billions of VND.

In May 2025, Dong Nai Provincial Police dismantled the MTC - Matrix Chain virtual currency ring, appropriating nearly VND 10,000 billion from tens of thousands of investors. This is considered the largest virtual currency scam ever in Vietnam, with a multi-level capital mobilization model, promising profits many times higher than bank deposits.

Nguyen Hoa Binh and other subjects secretly withdrew money from Antex's general wallet, transferred it to personal wallets and converted it to VND to share.

Profiting from investor confidence

The most interesting case these days is the Antex virtual currency case. Raising capital from tens of thousands of investors, with the promise of "building a Vietnamese digital currency ecosystem", Nguyen Hoa Binh - Chairman of NextTech Group Joint Stock Company - and his accomplices have just been accused of appropriating an exceptionally large amount of money, up to hundreds of billions of VND. The police investigation agency determined that the group of subjects had sophisticated tricks to build investor trust, then profit.

At the time of launch, Antex was known as a project that received an investment of 2.5 million USD from NextTech Group and a venture capital fund chaired by Nguyen Hoa Binh.

On the project's homepage, Nguyen Hoa Binh was introduced as a senior investor and advisor. However, after listing, the value of crypto assets quickly lost 99% of its value, causing many investors to lose money. Antex then had almost no activity. Initial investigation results by the authorities showed that Nguyen Hoa Binh's commitments only existed on paper. Products such as VNDT wallet or blockchain exchange were not completed on schedule.

The advertisements are just promises, such as: this virtual currency is used as a tool to buy, sell, and exchange with more than 100 different virtual currencies, linked to e-wallets such as: Ngan Luong, Vimo, Tien Ngay for payment. Or through this platform, users can deposit VNDT, mortgage to borrow money... Through this ecosystem, the subjects have found ways to hide the flow of misappropriated money.

Major General Duong Duc Hai - Deputy Director of Hanoi City Police said: "The Ngan Luong portal is one of the payment portals related to the ecosystem of the subject Binh. We are also clarifying many activities related to the money transfer ecosystem at Ngan Luong company. We are focusing on investigating and clarifying many other financial activities".

Colonel Doan Kien Trung - Deputy Head of the Economic Police Department, Hanoi City Police shared: "During the investigation and fight, we also determined that in Next Tech's ecosystem there is a Ngan Luong wallet. This is a payment gateway, through the wallet's money transfer activities. With Shark Binh's ecosystem, the crimes do not stop at just two charges."

According to the police investigation agency, manipulating investors' psychology was the most sophisticated trick in this case. When the price of Antex currency plummeted, the group still reassured the community, continuously announcing "new orientations" and "next investment plans" to prevent a wave of massive capital withdrawals. This is a typical form of psychological tricks in virtual asset investment models. When trust is exploited, investors easily fall into the "herd effect", ignoring signs of legal risks.

Antex, like many other cryptocurrency projects, relies on the same formula: under the name of developing a "4.0 financial ecosystem", the project calls on tens of thousands of investors to invest in its self-issued cryptocurrency, promising high interest rates and paying commissions to referrals. In fact, this is a disguised multi-level marketing model, without a license, using the reputation of famous businessmen to create trust, then appropriating hundreds of billions of dong from investors.

On September 9, 2025, the Government issued Resolution 05 on piloting the crypto asset market.

Risk Identification Signs

Fraudulent and asset-appropriated cryptocurrency projects like Antex took place during a period when there was no complete legal framework for crypto assets. Many people did not have the knowledge to recognize the signs of risk.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan Cuong - Department 4, Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security recommended: "Through professional work, as well as monitoring the field of virtual assets and encrypted assets, we have noticed some prominent signs indicating that these are projects related to fraud and property appropriation. Specifically, in terms of interest rates, the subjects offer unusually high interest rates compared to other business models such as offering interest rates of up to 1%/day. Thus, no traditional business model or current business model can meet such high interest rates.

Second, there is no risk in investing. Usually, the subjects will offer capital insurance to investors. Normally, when investing, there will be risks. In this case, the subjects accept to provide risk insurance to investors. From there, creating a comfortable mentality, ready to deposit money to invest in the subjects' projects.

Third, present a future vision, build a project that can replace bitcoin. Currently, the value of bitcoin is around 110,000 USD/coin. When promoting this project to replace bitcoin, it will give investors the expectation that when investing at this time, you will expect to get huge profits in the future. Therefore, leading to more and more people participating in investing in the field of virtual assets and crypto assets.

According to statistics, up to 20 million Vietnamese people own digital assets in cyberspace. Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan Cuong - Department 4, Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention, Ministry of Public Security commented: "Currently, Vietnamese law prohibits the use of virtual assets and encrypted assets as a means of payment. If you intentionally use virtual assets and encrypted assets as a means of payment, you will be prosecuted according to the Penal Code. In addition, the State Bank has also issued a directive prohibiting credit institutions from providing intermediary payment services and providing payment services for activities related to virtual assets and encrypted assets.

On September 9, 2025, the Government issued Resolution 05 on piloting the crypto asset market. In June, the National Assembly also issued and passed the Law on Digital Technology Industry, which officially took effect from January 1, 2026. Accordingly, virtual assets and crypto assets will be considered a type of property under the Civil Code.

Vietnam has just begun piloting the crypto asset market under Resolution 05 of the Government - effective from September 9 this year. This is also an effort from the State management agency to prevent subjects from taking advantage of legal gaps to illegally raise capital.

Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Tuan Cuong further advised the people: "Currently, when people want to participate in virtual asset and crypto asset investment projects, they need to learn carefully about that project, specifically about the development roadmap and development team, do not trust people who have influence on cyberspace such as KOLs and KOCs. When they promote those projects, they need to really learn and understand that project. Besides, we need to be clearly aware of the potential risks when participating in investing in virtual asset and crypto asset projects, because profits always come with risks. On October 10, the value of bitcoin fell from 120,000 USD/coin to 102,000 USD/coin in just a few hours, leading to many investors losing their accounts.

In addition, in the coming time, when the domestic crypto-asset trading floor is licensed under Resolution No. 05 of the Government, as well as the Law on Digital Technology Industry officially takes effect from January 1, 2026, we recommend that Vietnamese investors should participate in investing in crypto-assets at domestic trading floors. Because when participating in crypto-asset trading and investing in crypto-assets at domestic trading floors, Vietnamese investors will be guaranteed their legal rights and interests. At the same time, it also helps to contribute to removing Vietnam from the FATF's gray list of anti-money laundering measures.

The cryptocurrency market is a potential market but also has many potential risks because there is absolutely no floor price or ceiling price, leading to the value of assets that can skyrocket or fall freely in just a few short seconds. Investors need to learn carefully if they want to participate in this market, be wary of the sweet "cakes" that projects offer, such as "extremely high profits or no risk" is an example.

Source: https://vtv.vn/canh-bao-bay-lua-tien-ao-100251016195643978.htm