Police investigators of the Ministry of Public Security sent Nguyen Chi Toan to custody for four months on March 23, for hacking into a bank computer to draw money.
The decision to detain Nguyen Chi Toan, 27, from Ho Chi Minh's district Tan Binh for misusing the computer to appropriate money from the Mekong Housing Bank was approved by the People's Supreme Procurator.
Toan is a former employee of Trans Infotech Viet Nam which sent him to fix malfunctioning of computers in the Mekong Housing Bank last August. While Toan was fixing the computer, he discovered the password to access the bank’s data system. At that time he used it to re-edit some data information as a matter of curiosity.
However, the idea to withdraw money from the bank occurred to him in January, 2011. Toan opened an ATM account in the bank under the alias name Nguyen Nan. He then accessed the data system of the bank, selected a random account holder Le Ngoc Truc, who had not used her account for a long time. He then transferred VND250 million (US$12,500) from Le Ngoc Truc’s account into that of Nguyen Nan.
Subsequently, Toan has transferred money many times to the Nguyen Nan account from ATM booths in the city. Once he withdrew VND30 million and on another occasion he took out VND100 million. It is estimated that he has withdrawn VND330 million from the bank so far.
Later he opened yet another alias account and transferred VND1.5 billion into that account. However, when the bank employees froze the account, they discovered abnormalities and reported it to the police who nabbed Toan.
