Many victims fall into the trap
The Investigation Police Agency of Bac Tu Liem District Police, Hanoi is investigating a case of labor export fraud and has decided to prosecute two suspects. According to investigation documents, around September 2018, Mr. Van Hoang (name changed) went to Hoang Ha Company to complete procedures to study abroad in Korea.
At this time, Ha Van Hung (born in 1993), residing in Nga Phu commune, Nga Son district, Thanh Hoa province, and Hoang Thi Huong (born in 1986), residing in Minh Khai commune, Hoai Duc district, Hanoi, directly advised Van Hoang on the study abroad program. On September 6, 2018, Hoang paid Hoang Thi Huong 10 million VND as a deposit to complete the study abroad procedures. On November 27, 2018, Hoang paid nearly 84 million VND to Hoang Thi Huong to make a commitment to authorize him to study abroad. On December 25, 2018, Huong continued to collect more than 93 million VND from Hoang for the purpose of applying for a visa. However, to date, Hoang has not been able to study abroad and has not received his money back. The total amount of money that Hoang has been embezzled is more than 187 million VND.
In Can Tho City, there have also been a series of cases involving companies and individuals acting as labor export brokers without a license or with the purpose of defrauding and appropriating property. On October 30, Can Tho City Police announced that the investigation agency had prosecuted and temporarily detained Tran Thi Ngoc Nuong (born 2000, residing in Vinh Binh Commune, Vinh Thanh District) for the act of "fraudulent appropriation of property".
"Underground" brokers are rampant on the internet
According to Lao Dong's records in the group "Exposing Labor Export and Vocational Study Abroad - Warning about sophisticated labor export scams" with 44,000 members on Facebook, it is not difficult to come across posts from victims of labor export scams.
In particular, Ms. Nguyen Thi Phuong Trinh (name of the character requested to be changed) posted a warning when she herself lost nearly 300 million VND in just 1 month. Previously, from Huong Son district, Ha Tinh province, Ms. Trinh traveled to Hanoi to find the labor export brokerage company that had cheated her of the above amount of money. According to Ms. Trinh, when she wanted to go to work abroad, she accidentally became friends with a woman who claimed to be a laborer working in Korea. This person instructed Ms. Trinh to connect with the labor export brokerage company and pay a deposit of 10 million VND to reserve a place.
"They said I don't need to go to the company to do the paperwork, just finish the application, sign the papers and fly. I've waited for more than a month, but still haven't received any calls" - Ms. Trinh said, crying.
According to Ms. Trinh, the scammers used three different people. One person claimed to be a worker who had successfully been exported, one person was an employee of a brokerage company, and one person was the manager of the worker in Korea. When asked why she easily trusted and transferred money to these people, Ms. Trinh said: “They made me believe that I only needed to pay the money and that I would be able to go on the day. If I withdrew the money without continuing to pay, I would lose all the money I had deposited.”
Speaking with Lao Dong, a representative of the Department of Overseas Labor Management (Ministry of Labor - Invalids and Social Affairs) recommended that to avoid being scammed, workers should pay service fees directly at the company after signing the contract, not at the branch. When paying, ask the service company to issue a receipt or invoice with the full name of the company, date of document creation, payer, amount and content of payment, accountant, cashier and company seal (full name, title and signature).
In case, for objective reasons, the employee cannot pay directly at the enterprise but must pay by bank transfer, it is necessary to carefully check the information to ensure that the receiving account number and account name are correct for the service enterprise.
"When problems arise related to service companies or individuals impersonating service company employees, please report them to this unit, the Department of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs of localities, and relevant authorities for guidance and handling," informed a representative of the Department of Foreign Labor Management.
