Ha Noi People's Court yesterday held a session for the trial of three men accused of swindling people of their money through a Facebook scam.

The accused at the court. — Photo vov.vn 

The accused – 20-year-old Dang Dinh Anh, a resident of Ha Noi; 19- year-old Le Phu Quyet from Thanh Hoa Province; and 21-year-old Nguyen Van Anh from Thanh Hoa Province – were prosecuted as per the Criminal Code for using the telecom network and the Internet to cheat people.

Between September 2014 and January 2015, the accused used computers to send spam messages to Facebook accounts, asking people to pay money through mobile phone cards to get promotional offers.

The victims transferred money to their e-wallet accounts and via e-payment networks used in e-commerce transactions. Then the criminals used credit cards to withdraw the money.

The criminals swindled several victims, cheating them of more than VND100 million (US$4,700).

Dang Dinh Anh has been sentenced to 15 months of probation, while Le Phu Quoc has been sentenced to 24 months in prison, while Nguyen Van Anh has received a 15-month prison term.

Notably, this is one of the first cases of hi-tech crime conducted via social networks to be brought to the court in Ha Noi.

VNS