Exposing the tricks
According to Thanh Hoa Provincial Police, recently, taking advantage of people's need to leave the country to find jobs, travel, visit relatives..., some subjects have used tricks related to immigration activities to defraud and appropriate people's property.
In July and August 2024 alone, in Thanh Hoa, there were 2 cases in Tho Xuan and Hoang Hoa districts where subjects used social networks to scam people into making passports and visas to Japan and Korea to appropriate property, with an amount of up to 300 million VND.
The main method of these subjects is to use social networking sites such as Facebook and Zalo to search for and contact people who need to complete procedures to leave the country, in order to lure gullible people.
To complete immigration procedures, the subjects asked the applicant to send a portrait photo and ID photo to complete the passport issuance procedure. After a while, the subjects sent a fake passport photo and announced that the passport issuance procedure was complete.
Next, the subjects contacted the victims again, informed them of the cost of exiting the country and asked them to deposit a sum of money into a bank account provided by the subjects to complete visa application procedures, legal documents, and contact the Immigration Department to complete exit and entry procedures.
After the victim transferred the money, the subject confirmed that he had received the money and promised to help so that the people would only have to pay the remaining amount after going abroad. To create trust, the subject sent the victim photos of visas and other fake documents.
Next, the subjects sent a fake "Verification Letter proving income and financial resources", asking people to transfer from 20 to 50 million VND (even hundreds of millions of VND) to a fake account of the Immigration Department to prove their finances.
The fake document also clearly states the purpose of verification and promises to refund the money after about 30-40 minutes of payment. In case the citizen hesitates, the subjects will impersonate officers of the Immigration Department and continuously call the citizen to urge him to pay the money. After receiving the money, the subjects immediately cut off all contact.
Recommendations
To proactively prevent, detect and stop the above crimes, Thanh Hoa Provincial Police recommend: people need to learn about the legal regulations on entry and exit; be vigilant and identify the methods and tricks of subjects and networks that organize others to illegally exit and migrate.
When needing to leave the country, people should submit their own passport application or contact the Immigration Department of the Provincial Police for guidance and support; be wary of "service brokers" who make passports.
Absolutely do not provide personal information, images, as well as citizen identification images to social networking services to keep information confidential, avoid being used by bad guys for illegal activities; do not send money to strange accounts of unknown origin.
In addition, people who need to apply for a visa should directly contact the representative agency of the country they are going to (Embassy, Consulate, Representative Office) based in Vietnam, or through reputable travel and labor export companies with international travel licenses, to submit visa applications, or get advice and guidance on procedures; do not listen to and follow brokers and organizations.
People who want to work abroad must carefully research the labor export company before signing a contract and transferring money to complete the procedures; absolutely do not trust the information and promises on the internet, to avoid falling into the scam trap that the subjects have "arranged" very sophisticatedly.
