A gang of fraudsters led by a Nigerian were arrested in Can Tho City for allegedly swindling more than VND20 billion (US$888,800) from naive Vietnamese women, said the local police yesterday.

The 44-year-old gang leader, Micheal IkeChuk Leonard, eyed his victims via several Facebook accounts in which he lied about being a rich, successful man abroad who had had an unfortunate marriage, either being a widower or divorced.

After a few days chatting with the victims, the swindler would confess his so-called love to them, saying he wanted to send them some expensive presents like iPhones, laptops, cosmetics or perfumes.

At that stage came the participation of Leonard’s Vietnamese underlings, including three women in HCM City: 26-year-old Huynh Ha Binh, Huynh Ha Uyen and Nguyen Tran Quynh Nhi, both 24.

They would play roles as delivery shippers or airport customs officers that told the victims that their presents were being held at Noi Bai International Airport due to a large amount of foreign cash found in the cargo, undeclared by the sender.

The victims were told to pay some fines and other made-up fees via bank accounts in order to get the delivery.

The gang later withdrew the money via ATM cards in Cambodia.

The gang was arrested last Thursday when they were on their way back to Vietnam from Cambodia. They admitted to having cheated about 100 Vietnamese women across the country since last year, swindling more than VND20 billion from their victims.

In Can Tho City alone, seven people fell victim to the scam to a total of VND2 billion.

The police are looking into thousands of document pages from their emails and Facebook messages for further investigation.

Vietnamese police have constantly raised alerts about the increasing number of crimes caused by foreigners in the country in recent years, especially high-tech frauds via the Internet or Facebook - the most popular social network in Vietnam.

HCM City – the most expat populated city where a sixth of all foreigners in Vietnam live – also had a high rate of foreign crimes. The city arrested 1,103 foreigners in 517 cases during the five years from 2008 to 2013.

VNS