The Police  of Hung Yen province in the northern region has dismantled a high-tech operation that used cryptocurrency investments to defraud victims of their assets, according to the provincial police's official web portal.

As reported, nine individuals have been arrested and legal proceedings have been initiated following a series of emergency searches. These individuals, residing in Hung Yen and neighboring Bac Ninh provinces, as well as the cities of Hanoi and Hai Phong, are now in temporary detention and facing charges of "fraudulent appropriation of property".

The investigation revealed that the suspects employed high-tech methods to defraud victims through investments in the cryptocurrency USDT.

This currency, which has a 1:1 exchange rate with the US dollar, was traded on a fake trading platform called "Toptrade1", masterminded by Nguyen Duy Thoai, born in 1995 and residing in the Phu Lien ward of the northern city of Hai Phong.

The suspects created electronic wallets on the globally renowned cryptocurrency exchange "binance.com" to act as intermediaries for transferring funds between themselves and investors.

On a daily basis, Thoai and his accomplices organized numerous promotional events, created groups on platforms like Telegram and Facebook, and held live streams on TikTok to entice investors. They presented ambitious targets and promised "super profits" to potential victims.

The group frequently flaunted supposed great wealth, such as diamond rings, expensive watches, and luxury car keys, all of which were later found to be cheap imitations and models.

Furthermore, the perpetrators used doctored images and videos to fake successful investments and large profit withdrawals. They also created fake accounts to send messages to each other, creating a FOMO (fear of missing out) effect to lure investors into depositing money into their fraudulent platform. Once a victim's financial resources were depleted, the suspects would block all contact.

When investors deposited money, their accounts would display notifications of profits many times the original investment. However, these were entirely virtual notifications, and account holders could not withdraw any actual cash. Within a short period, the group managed to attract thousands of participants, who registered numerous accounts on the sham platform.

At the time of the arrests, the total amount of virtual currency transacted on the platform had reached 100 million USDT, equivalent to over VND2.6 trillion (over $99.25 million).