2 Chinese men jailed for using fake bank cards in Vietnam

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Ping Sanshi, 41, got 10 years and Hao Yanjun, 28, nine for “using computer networks, telecommunications networks, Internet or digital devices to misappropriate property,” the court ruled Wednesday.

Hao Yanjun (left) and Ping Sanshi in the dock on Wednesday. Photo by VnExpress/N.T.

According to the indictment, Hao learned to forge bank cards from a Thai woman in early 2015. He then joined Ping's travel firm in November that year.

In January 2016, Ping's firm inked a deal with a Vietnamese tour company in Da Nang headed by Nguyen Van Hung to bring Chinese tourists to Vietnam. The business resulted in Ping's firm owing Hung's CNY510,000 ($74,000).

Learning that Hao could forge bank cards, Ping paid him VND10 million ($440) to contact the Thai woman and the trio hatched the bank card scheme together.

In April 2016 Ping and Hao used forged visa cards to withdraw the money to pay Hung. Vietcombank's Da Nang branch quickly detected suspicious transactions and alerted the police. By the time the police busted the case and arrested the Chinese duo, they had conducted 15 successful transactions totaling around VND225 million ($10,000).

It's not immediately clear if the Thai woman has faced any punishment for her involvement in the scheme.

Wednesday's trial was the latest in a series of crimse targeting Vietnam's banking system in the past two years, mostly involving Chinese nationals using fake bank cards.

Last month, the police arrested three Chinese men for using fake bank cards to steal about $1,450 from automated teller machines (ATMs) in Hanoi.

In March, two Chinese citizens also got up to seven years for withdrawing VND210 million from Hanoi's ATMs using fake bank cards.