In July 2022, when surfing on Facebook, T.V.T, 33, in Ha Tinh City, saw a link that invited people for investments which promised high profits. Because of curiosity, T accessed the link.

T was guided by ‘experts’ on how to open an account for transactions and join an online trading floor on Zalo with thousands of players.

“I was told to follow the ‘experts’ instructions. I had to pay money and then get a commission,” T said. 

At first, T paid little money and followed the orders on the trading floors as directed by the members who introduced themselves as ‘experts’, and then got interest via an account.

After some operations, the ‘experts’ won confidence from T and persuaded him to pay bigger amounts of money to receive the interest.

T decided to transfer VND20 million to a strange account and received a message which said he followed the instructions and therefore could receive VND5 million in interest.

“VND25 million worth of capital and interest was transferred to my account just minutes later,” T recalled.

Continuously paying money and enjoying big profits, T was fascinated. At that time, the guide added him to a group of three accounts, including one who called himself a ‘mentor’.

The mentor told T that if T paid VND40 million, he would get a high commission of VND20 million.

T did as guide by the ‘mentor’ and transferred VND40 million into an account. However, he was told that T made wrong transactions, and therefore, could not withdraw money.

While T was confused, the ‘mentor’ told him to pay another ten of millions of VND to get both principal and interest.

However, all the transactions failed, which was blamed on T’s wrong operation and wrong timing. After a series of transfers with the total amount of VND240 million, he still could not get his money back. The mentor then said he had to pay tax of 20 percent to withdraw money.

However, he had no more money to pay. Finally, he realized that he was swindled out of money. However, he was embarrassed and did not dare report to the police.

T is not alone. P.T.N, an officer of a non-business public unit in Ha Tinh, said she transferred VND147 million and lost that amount of money. However, unlike T, N told the story to people and reported to the police with hopes of getting the money back.

Thien Luong