HCM City police concerned by foreign cyber-crime growth

Colonel Nguyen Sy Quang, head of the city's Public Security Department's counselling section, said that foreigners had stolen money from ATMs and used fake credit cards to buy highly valued property.

Other transnational crimes involved people pretending to be police and making internet calls to cheat people.

Quang said that foreign-related crime would likely increase when Vietnam integrates more deeply with the rest of the world.

Last year, the city police captured several gangs of Taiwanese, Chinese and Nigerians, all of whom were charged with cheating others.

Colonel Le Ngoc Phuong, head of the department's crime division, said police had captured gangs of foreigners who had broken into banks and supermarkets in Khanh Hoa and Dong Nai provinces.

In HCM City, one of those gangs broke into Maximark supermarket in Tan Binh District stealing safes containing a great deal of money.

The supermarket has a camera system, but it was not working when the burglary occurred.

"When we verified their identities, we discovered that the gang had committed burglaries in Thailand, Cambodia and Indonesia," Phuong said.

However, generally, 10 out of 13 types of crime fell last year in the city.

No criminal cases caused huge concern among the public, while the number of serious crimes fell, Quang said.

According to a report from the HCM City Public Security Department, there were a total of 6,004 criminal cases reported in the city last year, a reduction of 377 compared with 2014.

The police were able to solve a total of 4,059 criminal cases, arresting 4,670 people.

Ninety out of 100 murder cases were successfully investigated, and 109 people who were involved in the cases were arrested or detained.

Of 236 burglaries, the city officers solved 160 cases and arrested 278 people.

About 3,500 thefts were reported and 2,000 cases were investigated and discovered, with 2,000 people arrested.

Le Dong Phong, director of HCM City Department of Public Security, said that the department would deploy several solutions to ensure security, especially for important political events in 2016.

Following instructions from the Ministry of Public Security, the city's public security sector will focus on fighting crime from now until February 15, the end of the public Tet (Lunar New Year) holiday.

The entire city police force will be working to maintain security during the up-coming holiday, Phong said.