Exposing the trick that made thousands of investors deposit billions of dollars into virtual currency PaynetCoin

As reported by Tuoi Tre Online , Phu Tho Provincial Police have just dismantled a transnational organized crime group that illegally operated in the form of buying and selling a virtual currency called PaynetCoin with a scale of billions of USD.

Talking about the operation method of the virtual currency fraud group, Major General Nguyen Minh Tuan - Director of Phu Tho Provincial Police - said that since 2021, Nguyen Van Ha (45 years old, in Phu My Bac commune, Gia Lai province - leader of the ring) and his accomplices programmed and created the virtual currency PaynetCoin operating on the Blockchain platform, building a reward system according to a multi-level model to attract participants (using websites such as FMCPAY.com and AFF2024.com to register and activate illegal investment packages).

"Ha studied finance and worked in the banking sector, so he understands credit, finance, and especially the psychology of people, especially those who have money but lack investment knowledge, making it easy to invite them to invest in virtual currency," said Major General Nguyen Minh Tuan.

To develop the system, Ha attracted a number of people to join, including Phan Viet Lap (42 years old, in Bay Hien ward, Ho Chi Minh City). These people all have experience in multi-level marketing activities, so they developed the system very quickly by organizing large seminars at resorts, resorts, and 5-star hotels to promote PaynetCoin as valuable and profitable when investing.

Ha's group also pays out profits of 5 - 9% per month - an extremely attractive interest rate for newcomers in the current economic context.

Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Tung, head of the Economic Security Department of Phu Tho Province Police, said that the scam group used PaynetCoin to pay rewards to investors. This money will be used by investors to exchange for those who are holding PaynetCoin cryptocurrency in need on the FMCPAY.com exchange into USDT cryptocurrency, which can then be exchanged into USD or Vietnamese currency.

However, they also set a very high withdrawal fee for each transaction, making people afraid every time they withdraw money. At the same time, they "sow" the hope that the money will be left there, the more reward points they accumulate in PaynetCoin, the higher the profit they will receive later, but in fact it has no value.

"When people are paid interest, they do not withdraw it because they heard the scammers say that if they keep PaynetCoin, it will become more and more profitable and its value will increase, so most people do not withdraw their money" - Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Tung shared.

Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Tung also said that in order to deceive investors, Ha's group also provided a lot of false information such as the virtual currency exchange PaynetCoin was registered to operate in the US, or that this digital currency could be used to buy airline tickets, book hotel rooms...

However, all of these are websites created by Ha's group and do not have any real transaction value.

"With such cover and tricks, Ha's group attracted thousands of participants, the total amount of money raised reached billions of USD. Although the leader was Vietnamese, they mobilized both domestic and foreign investors.

At the time we cracked down on the case, money from India and the Philippines continued to flow into the virtual exchange that Ha had created," said Lieutenant Colonel Hoang Tung.

Major General Nguyen Minh Tuan revealed that when cracking down on the case, Ha's group withdrew about 200 million USD for personal use, not as the target that was previously stated in the appeal to investors.

"In this case, we have cracked down and arrested the ringleader, as well as the creator of the virtual currency to defraud and appropriate people's assets. At the same time, we have seized and frozen a lot of cash, foreign currency, and real estate with a total amount of up to 1,000 billion VND.

In the future, when the investigation is expanded, we will definitely be able to seize more money to return to the victims later" - Major General Nguyen Minh Tuan shared more.