Falling into the trap" because of impatience to work seasonally abroad

Stuck into loans

Mr. D recounted that all transactions started from the end of March 2026. Through introductions and sweet words on the internet, subject Nguyen Thi Thu Dong committed to taking him to Korea for seasonal work. To strengthen trust, the subject did not hesitate to promise that if he could not exit the country, he would be fully responsible and refund the application fee.

“Now thinking back, I realize this subject is too sophisticated. Initially, to create absolute trust, she invited me to her private house and gave me directly 20 million VND. Next, she continuously said she had to add procedures to request me to transfer money. I myself was too eager to go, I listened to everything they said at that time” - Mr. D shared.

Preliminary calculations show that the total amount of money Mr. D. transferred to this ring's account is up to 66 million VND. To have money to pay as requested, the couple had to run around everywhere. Even at a dead end, Mr. D. was forced to risk his life to find hot loan outlets outside with floating interest rates.

In fact, if it were not for the meeting and timely warning of Lao Dong Newspaper reporters in April 2026, perhaps this poor worker would have continued to get bogged down in new loans to "contribute" until he was bankrupt.

Unfounded promises and title traps

Mr. D's story is not an isolated case. Ms. Tran Thi Ngoc Ai - Head of Labor Supply Department, Dong Thap Provincial Employment Service Center (TTDVVL) - said that during the working process and receiving information, there are currently many cases of workers coming to the center in a state of panic because they were scammed out of money. Many people "cry their eyes out" because the money they were scammed out of was borrowed and saved for a lifetime.

In 2026, Dong Thap province was assigned the target of recruiting more than 760 workers to go to Korea to work seasonally. Meanwhile, the actual demand of the people is many times higher, the number of applications is up to thousands. This "slackness" has inadvertently created fertile ground for brokers to "draw" a path of fraud.

Mr. Nguyen Phu Hieu - Director of Dong Thap Employment Service Center - analyzed that fraudsters clearly understand the general psychology of poor workers that they want to go quickly, are reluctant to learn foreign languages and are afraid to participate in long-term orientation education classes. In fact, the center has received many heartbreaking cases, some people lost 30-40 million, many people paid 80 million, and even some cases paid up to 300 million VND to brokers.

The strict regulation of the program is that workers must be between 25 and 45 years old and not have tattoos. However, brokers are willing to promise people over 45 years old or commit "tattooing is still possible". Moreover, currently, many private companies deliberately name them "Employment Service Company" to confuse people with "TTDVVL" (the only public unit licensed)" - Director of Dong Thap Provincial TTDVVL informed.

According to Mr. Hieu, the current fraud network is no longer small-scale but has links and spread to many provinces and cities in the Mekong Delta region. Therefore, workers must understand clearly that not every private enterprise is allowed to carry out sending workers to work seasonally abroad.

Especially in Dong Thap province, only TTDVVL is the only unit assigned by the Provincial People's Committee to perform this core task. To protect their own rights and property, people absolutely do not transact through intermediaries, do not believe in verbal commitments on social networks" - Mr. Hieu added.

Determined to step out of the shock and thanks to the connection from Lao Dong Newspaper, Mr. D came to register to work seasonally in Korea at Dong Thap Employment Service Center; and was considered by the unit as a case of special concern. "I want to use my own bloody story to send a warning to readers across the country, never believe the sweet words of outside brokers when I am eager to go to work" - Mr. D said.