Four men arrested for appropriating e-commerce platform's property

These men are: Luu Thanh Luan (aged 24, native of Bat Xat district, Lao Cai province), Tan Anh Hiep (aged 24, native of Bat Xat district, Lao Cai province), Le Van Hieu (aged 40, native of Hoang Mai district, Ha Noi), and Duong Van Chinh (aged 26, native of Tu Son district, Bac Ninh province), according to the police investigation agency of Phu Tho provincial police department.

They were accused of using computer networks, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to appropriate property of Shopee Co., Ltd which is the owner of Shopee - the biggest e-commerce platform in Southeast Asia.

Previously, from November 2023, local police discovered several groups of people who used social networks inside and outside Phu Tho province calling for virtual orders and applying discount vouchers when purchasing goods on the Shopee e-commerce platform.

By using this tactic, these people created virtual transactions worth tens of billions of dong and thereby appropriating the value of discount codes that Shopee offers to its online shoppers.

Shopee regularly provides promotions and discounts in form of high-value discount codes (vouchers) for consumers to create favorable conditions for consumers to easily buy goods its platform at affordable prices.

Taking advantage of the above support policy, these people used computers, telecommunications networks, and electronic means to appropriate the value of the above discount codes, directly causing damage to the Shopee e-commerce platform and its customers and affecting the healthy development of the e-commerce market in Viet Nam.

Through this incident, Phu Tho police department recommends that people should not join virtual ordering groups on Facebook, Zalo, Telegram or other social networking platforms to avoid assisting criminal groups in defrauding e-commerce platforms or they may become victims of property fraud through the trick of recruiting people to do "low-stress, high-paying jobs"./ .