The two Malaysians were arrested on December 21, 2007, when they bought suitcases and bags costing almost US$6,000 at the Louis Vuitton fashion shop on Ngo Quyen street in Hanoi’s Hoan Kiem district.

One of the shop’s staff recognised Choi, who had previously used fake credit cards to pay for goods in the same shop, and called the police.

Hong later admitted that he had traveled to Vietnam three times and used fake cards to pay bills totaling VND293 million (US$17,000).

Choi said that he had used fake cards to rack up more than VND275 million (US$16,200) in goods.