Hanoi police arrested a Malaysian suspected of using a fake credit card to buy a laptop and four iPhones at an electronic mart in Hanoi on Thursday.

This is the second time this month that a Malaysian has been caught using fake credit cards.

Choi Mingkian, who had rented a room in a hotel on Hang Hanh Street in Hoan Kiem District, went to the Pico Plaza  with another man to buy the items, according to Hoan Kiem District Police who announced the arrest on Friday.

The two men bought a laptop for VND20 million (US$972.7) and were purchasing four iPhones for VND80 million ($3,891) when the cashier became suspicious and phoned Techcombank to verify the card details. This caused the two men to run away with the laptop.

Mingkian was arrested by the plaza’s security officials, but the other man managed to escape and remains at large.

Police found Mingkian in possession of 13 credit cards. Subsequent inspection of his hotel room found another 21.

Mingkian confessed to police that a gang in Malaysia helped him obtain a passport and told him to use fake credit cards in Vietnam.

Earlier this month, another Malaysian national was arrested in Hanoi when he and another suspect were attempting to use fake credit cards.

Koay Keng Chen, 21, and the other suspect on May 7 visited a mobile phone shop on Lang Ha Street in Dong Da District and to buy five iPhones for more than VND85 million.

A Sacombank scanner accepted their card but the bank called the shop soon after, while the shop employees were packing the phones, to notify the shop about irregularities in the card.

Chen and the other man immediately ran away but he was caught by the shop employees and police of Lang Ha Ward Police Station that is not so far away.

Chen confessed he had come to the same shop the previous day to buy two iPhones for VND35 million ($1,702) and later sold it to another shop for $700.

Police found Chen had 14 credit cards and two passports, including one of Chen and another one of a Chinese national, believed to be fake.

Chen had also said some gang in Malaysia gave him the cards to buy goods in Vietnam. He would have to pay the half the money from the scam. Chen arrived in Vietnam on April 27.