Lost money and identity revealed just a few days after starting work
Having just graduated from a college in Hanoi City, Ms. Nguyen Thi Ngoc Linh (name changed, born in 2004, from Phu Tho) is looking for part-time jobs through a "online work at home" group on social networks. An account claiming to be a fanpage manager sends messages, introducing a job directly on the sales page: just need to answer customers, finalize applications according to available scripts, work flexibly, earn 5-7 million VND/month. To build trust, this person sends photos of the salary statement of the "old employee", along with a series of thanks in the Telegram chat group.
After agreeing, she was asked to pay 500,000 VND "training fee" and 1 million VND "page administration rights activation fee", with a commitment to refund after the first month of work. After transferring the money, Ngoc Linh was added to a Telegram group, assigned a few small tasks to create a feeling that work was going on normally.
Just a few days later, the manager gave the reason that the page was broken, the system was under maintenance, and asked her to wait. Then, he asked her to continue paying money to open a mission for higher income. Because she had just graduated and had no job, she had no income other than family support money, she refused the request.
They used the excuse that I did not pay more money but claimed that I was not qualified to work and lost the money I had paid. This is also my luck when I did not have money, if I had money, I would probably continue to be deceived by them," she said and expressed concern when she sent ID card photos and personal information to the subjects.
Recently, on January 22, 2026, the Immigration Management Department (Gia Lai Provincial Police) received information about 2 citizens residing in Xuan An and Tuy Phuoc Tay communes being deported back to the country by Cambodian authorities through Ha Tien International Border Gate (An Giang province). Immediately after that, the Immigration Management Department coordinated with the Police of Xuan An and Tuy Phuoc Tay communes to verify personal information and circumstances; and at the same time coordinated with functional agencies, local authorities and families to organize the reception and return of the above citizens to their localities in accordance with regulations.
Through working, the 2 citizens mentioned above confessed that due to lack of legal knowledge, believing in advertising information "light job, high salary" on social networks, they were deceived by subjects in the fraud ring to organize illegal exit to Cambodia for labor and work.
Notably, among these, there is a citizen suffering from mental illness, being beaten and tortured when being tricked into Cambodia, causing serious mental health decline, loss of cognitive ability and abnormal living when received and brought back to the locality.
Forgetful" psychology and constantly changing scam scripts
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. Ngo Minh Hieu (Hieu PC) - Network Security Expert cum Director of the Anti-Scam Project, said that when online transactions become bustling, scam traps are also set more densely. What is worrying is that although there have been many warnings, due to the psychology of "forgetting" combined with constantly changing scam scenarios, people only need a minute of negligence or subjectivity in the face of immediate benefits to easily fall into the trap, leading to property loss and extremely difficult recovery.
This is the time when students and workers need to earn extra income to take home for Tet, so they are easily attracted by invitations to work at home or work short-term night shifts with unreasonably attractive salaries. In fact, this is just a trap to lure victims to deposit money for reservations or participate in virtual tasks to appropriate assets," Mr. Hieu emphasized.
To warn people to avoid "falling into the trap" of "light job, high salary", Deputy Director of Hanoi Employment Service Center Vu Quang Thanh shared that at the end of the year, many scams of recruiting workers often appear, making it very difficult to distinguish between real and fake. Therefore, workers when looking for jobs need to carefully consider the conditions set by the company. First of all, with "light job, high salary" advertisements, workers need to stay away because in reality businesses pay salaries commensurate with their labor capacity, and cannot work little but receive high salaries.
When reading the recruitment notice, employees need to understand the legal status of the company, check the website that the unit recruits... Especially, they must understand how to sign contracts, rights and responsibilities when participating in work. If employees have full knowledge of the labor market, they will avoid job scams.
Currently, the Hanoi Employment Service Center introduces jobs to workers completely free of charge, with hundreds of businesses in need of recruitment through satellite job exchanges located in Hanoi City, workers can contact to find jobs through this official channel," Mr. Vu Quang Thanh added.
