Vietnamese police crack down on cross-border cryptocurrency scam, 5 people arrested with involved amount of $530,000

2026-01-18 08:32:01

According to the latest news, Vietnamese police have arrested 5 suspects involved in cryptocurrency scams in the Da Nang area, with the involved funds reaching 14 billion VND (approximately $5.328 million). The gang is based in Cambodia and conducts scams by mimicking Nasdaq exchanges, ultimately converting the illicit funds into cryptocurrencies to cover their tracks. This case reflects the organized nature of cross-border crypto scams and new methods of money laundering.

Carefully Planned Scam Chain

Professionalism of the Scam Method

This gang’s operational process is quite mature, involving multiple carefully designed steps:

Imitating well-known exchanges: Pretending to be Nasdaq to deceive, leveraging the brand trust of real exchanges
Operating fake accounts: Creating dozens of fake accounts on Zalo and Telegram to form a false trading ecosystem
Identity disguise: Impersonating investment experts, posting fake trading activities and false profit reports
Inducing investments: Systematically deceiving victims into investing funds through these fake identities and accounts

This is not just simple online fraud but a criminal gang with a complete deception system.

Organizational Features of Cross-Border Cooperation

The gang is based in Cambodia and conducts criminal activities in the Da Nang region of Vietnam, reflecting typical characteristics of cross-border scams:

Choosing regions with relatively weak law enforcement as bases
Dispersing criminal activities across different countries
Possessing “strong telecommunications networks and electronic devices,” indicating some technical support for the gang

Cryptocurrency Pathways for Money Laundering

Three-Step Transfer Method

The misappropriated funds are laundered through a carefully designed transfer process:

Stage	Specific Operation
First	Scam funds from victims
Second	Transfer through multiple bank accounts to break the money trail
Third	Finally convert into cryptocurrencies to obscure the source of funds

The key to this process is utilizing the anonymity and untraceability of cryptocurrencies to hide illicit gains. Once funds enter the crypto ecosystem, traditional banking supervision systems become difficult to track.

Industry Warnings

This case exposes several issues worth noting:

Social media as a scam tool: The openness of Zalo and Telegram allows scam gangs to easily create fake accounts, and these platforms have relatively lax account verification mechanisms.

Abuse of exchange brands: Mimicking well-known exchanges is a common scam tactic, making it easy for investors to confuse real and fake.

Cryptocurrencies used for laundering: While not an inherent problem of cryptocurrencies, they are indeed exploited by criminals to conceal funds.

Summary

The Vietnamese police’s recent arrests indicate that Southeast Asian countries are strengthening efforts to combat crypto scams. However, judging by the organizational level of this case, there may be more than one such scam gang. Investors should remember a few key points: do not relax vigilance just because an exchange name is well-known; be especially cautious of investment projects recommended via social media; genuine investment experts will not actively promote projects on social media. Meanwhile, regulatory agencies’ cross-border cooperation in fighting scams is improving, which increases the risks for criminals.

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