On July 2, the People's Court of Bac Ninh province announced the appeal verdict in the lawsuit between customer Tran Thi Chuc (50 years old, residing in Tu Son city) and Vietnam Technological and Commercial Joint Stock Bank (Techcombank).

At the trial on the same afternoon, the Trial Panel assessed that at the time of opening the account, Ms. Tran Thi Chuc was not aware of the content of the terms and conditions considered as a contract and binding on the parties on Techcombank's website, but had been explained to her by a bank employee. Therefore, Ms. Chuc must have known about these terms when signing.

However, Ms. Chuc said that she only finished grade 3 so her awareness is limited.

According to the appeal court, the first instance judgment that "Ms. Chuc's ignorance of these terms was an indirect cause of her loss of money" was unfounded.

At the trial, Techcombank representatives presented arguments to prove that they had provided Ms. Chuc with identification factors (username, phone number, password, one-time secret code, OTP code to activate and use Techcombank Mobile...). After that, Ms. Chuc performed operations to cancel the use on the iPhone and register on another device (at the request of two people claiming to be police officers).

According to Techcombank's transfer rules, only Ms. Chuc knows the OTP code and login password to transfer money, so logging in with the password she set herself shows her subjective will. The transaction is considered valid under the law and Techcombank, the appeal judgment stated.

The Court of Appeal assessed that, according to Ms. Chuc's complaint about the two scammers, it could be seen that Ms. Chuc was at fault for installing the malicious software they requested, "indirectly providing" them with the login name, password, and OTP for Techcombank Mobile transactions. The fact that the scammers took all her money was "entirely her fault".

When relatives transferred money into her account, Ms. Chuc did not proactively check the amount received, thereby "creating conditions" for the scammer to transfer her money to another account.

The court rejected Ms. Chuc's appeal, accepted Techcombank's appeal and the Procuracy's protest. Techcombank does not have to compensate any of the 14.6 billion VND that customers lost, because the court determined that it was "not at fault".

Previously, as VietNamNet reported, on April 22, 2022, Ms. Tran Thi Chuc received a phone call from a person who introduced himself as an investigator of the Da Nang City Police Department informing her of the results of the criminal investigation and sending her an emergency arrest warrant for her involvement in a drug trafficking ring.

This person also instructed Ms. Chuc to open 1 account at Vietcombank and 1 account at Techcombank, then transfer 40 billion VND equally into these 2 newly opened bank accounts to prove that they are not related to crime. At the same time, he told Ms. Chuc that on April 25, the freeze will be unblocked and she can go to the bank to withdraw the money.

On April 22 and 23, 2022, Ms. Chuc went to Vietcombank Kinh Bac Branch and Techcombank Tu Son Branch to open two new accounts, in addition to borrowing from friends and customers, mobilizing money from relatives to transfer 11.9 billion VND to Vietcombank and 14.6 billion to Techcombank.

However, on the morning of April 25, 2022, when Ms. Chuc went to Vietcombank Kinh Bac Branch and Techcombank Tu Son Branch to withdraw money, the staff of these two banks informed her that there was no money left in her account, while Ms. Chuc did not make any direct or indirect withdrawal transactions.

According to the bank statement, someone transferred 39 transactions with a total amount of 14.66 billion VND at Techcombank and 11.9 billion VND at Vietcombank from Ms. Chuc's account to other accounts.

At the first instance verdict, the People's Court of Tu Son City determined that there was a mixed fault in this case, in which part of the fault belonged to the banking service providers, Techcombank and Vietcombank, for not promptly updating the tricks of the criminals to guide and warn people to avoid losing money, so it accepted part of Ms. Tran Thi Chuc's lawsuit request, forcing Techcombank to be responsible for compensating Ms. Chuc for damages in the amount of 800 million VND.

At around 7pm on July 2, the panel of judges moved on to try Ms. Chuc’s second lawsuit against the defendant, Vietcombank. During the interrogation, in response to many questions from the judge, Ms. Chuc lost her composure and burst into tears in court.

Therefore, Lawyer Le Ngoc Ha (who is defending Ms. Chuc's rights) requested to stop the trial to ensure Ms. Chuc's health.

On the morning of July 3, Ms. Chuc submitted a request to postpone the trial due to health reasons.

However, after consideration, the panel of judges continued to try the case on the grounds that Ms. Chuc had submitted a request for postponement due to health reasons, but did not have a certificate from the competent authority.

At the ongoing trial, lawyer Ha argued on behalf of Ms. Chuc.

The case of losing 11.9 billion in Vietcombank account, arguing the fault of both sides . The People's Court of Bac Ninh province is opening an appeal hearing to resolve a civil case regarding a dispute over payment service provision between the plaintiff, customer Tran Thi Chuc, and the defendant, Vietcombank.