2 Chinese suspects in fake gold con held before escape from Vietnam

The Chinese were captured at the Vietnam-Cambodia border in the southern Vietnamese province of Tay Ninh, Dong Nai police said the same day.

People drive past the gold shop where the fraud happened in Dong Nai Province on December 4, 2015.

Dong Nai is about 40km from Ho Chi Minh City, whereas Tay Ninh sits some 100km northeast of the southern metropolis.

Police are verifying if the two suspects have direct involvement in the fraud, in which the owner of the Dong Nai-based N.P. gold shop was conned into buying nearly 60kg of fake gold dust on Wednesday.

The details regarding the detained people are therefore kept undisclosed, officers said.

The swindlers include three Chinese nationals, assisted by a female Vietnamese interpreter, according to Dong Nai police.

On Wednesday, the four came to the N.P. store, offering to sell 58kg of gold dust and gave the shopkeeper some samples for authenticity checking.

The store owner eventually agreed to buy the metal for VND10 billion after positive test results, only to realize he had bought bronze dust when the swindlers had already left with the payment in cash.

Police have identified the swindlers as three Chinese nationals, who had earlier made two transactions with N.P., when they sold real gold dust, even though it was in small amounts, to build faith with the storekeeper.

While the Chinese men previously hired two different male interpreters to help them, they had the Vietnamese woman phone the shop prior to the Wednesday visit, saying they had a huge amount of gold dust to sell and asked the shopkeeper “to keep it secret to avoid robbery.”

Dong Nai police said it is the largest gold fraud case with foreign culprits involved that has ever happened in Vietnam.

Officers are still hunting for the remaining two suspects.

(Source:TTNews)