Vietnamese police have smashed a huge cryptocurrency ring worth around $3.8 billion, state media said Fri-day, as authorities battle rampant illegal gambling in the country.
Fifty-nine people were detained in southern business hub Ho Chi Minh City, accused of luring players through social media to place bets online, according to the city police’s official newspa-per.
The gambling ring is reportedly the biggest ever uncovered by Vietnamese police. State media said players were in-structed to buy a cryptocurrency wallet and convert their money into one of two digital currencies, Ethereum or USDT — also known as Tether — before plac-ing bets on Swiftonline.live and Nagaclubs.com.
To entice new players, the de-tainees posted pictures on social networks showing off their fancy cars, expensive houses and ex-travagant parties.
To sway the more cautious, scammers also offered players insurance packages, with the promise of a refund if they did not win after six games.
However, during periods when there were a large number of players, the ring leaders crashed the websites in order to steal money from the digital wallets and avoid detection by police.—APP
