Many students suddenly become 'debtors' after believing in the scam of easy jobs with high salaries

Nguyen Tan Phat (18 years old, from Nam Dinh), a first-year student at Hanoi College of Electronics and Refrigeration, just lost 1 million VND after believing in a recruitment post on social media.

Because his family was not well off, as soon as he arrived in Hanoi, Phat looked for a part-time job after school. The male student accessed the group "Searching for part-time jobs in Hanoi" and saw that there were many high-paying jobs with flexible hours that fit his school schedule and home life, so he was quite interested.

After asking more about the job, Phat found that he met all the requirements, but before coming to work, the company required him to pay in advance the following amounts: uniform fee, application fee, health check fee... total advance payment of nearly 1 million VND.

The salary was high, the working hours were suitable, and there was no restriction, so the male student paid without any doubts. After paying, they made an appointment to come to the company's address the next day for an interview and could start working immediately.

The next day, when he went to the company's address for an interview, the male student discovered that this place was just a small alley with only residential houses. Phat asked the neighbors around and learned that there had never been a company in the area before.

The student hurriedly opened his phone to find the chat with the previous recruiter, but found that all the messages had been deleted without a trace, and he could not contact the recruiter by phone. He was shocked to know that he had been scammed.

"I've heard a lot about online scams, but I never thought I would become a victim. Although I'm sad about losing money, I also consider this a lesson to help me grow up," the male student shared.

Ngo Xuan Nam (18 years old, from Ha Tinh), a first-year student at Hanoi University of Science and Technology, lost nearly 10 million VND when he fell into a sophisticated trap of scammers.

Nam often surfs social networks to find information about units recruiting collaborators to buy and sell goods on e-commerce platforms Shopee, Lazada, Tiki... with each purchase, he will be refunded money plus a commission of 10% - 20% of the order value.

Initially, the company sent the male student a website link to approve the order and required a 100% deposit. Initially, for individual orders worth 15,000 - 50,000 VND, Nam was still refunded with commission to his account. However, when he asked to withdraw this amount to his account, the company immediately asked Nam to make more orders to increase the bonus before he could withdraw.

After that, Nam's account continuously received orders with higher denominations from several hundred thousand to several million VND. "When I deposited 7 million VND, I was very anxious because I kept depositing money to buy goods but did not receive the commission. I texted the company staff, they asked me to continue buying to reach the 10 million VND mark, otherwise all the money I had deposited for previous purchases and the commission would not be recovered," the male student said.

Regretting the money he had put in earlier, Nam had to borrow money from friends in the hope that the company would refund him for the remaining orders. When he had no more money to pay, Nam had to ask the company to open an account allowing him to withdraw the money, but the instructor immediately blocked his contact.

"All the tuition money my parents sent me was stolen. These past few days, I've been so depressed that I don't dare call my family," Nam sadly shared.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Mai, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Sociology and Development, Academy of Journalism and Communication, said that currently, new students or even 2nd and 3rd year students are facing very sophisticated scams.

Some of the reasons leading to the above situation are that students lack skills, are not proactive in researching deeply and thinking about the problem in the direction of the nature of the matter, so they are easily caught up in exaggerated information (easy work, high salary or advertisements from employers, cheap but good quality buying and selling and renting sites...)

According to Ms. Mai, when looking for part-time jobs, students need to find reputable brokerage centers and carefully research the job position, job content, and contract terms before applying.

"Students need to equip themselves with knowledge and skills such as finding information, knowing how to exploit and understand the nature of things. No job is easy and easy to succeed. To avoid falling into scams, when buying or renting a house, you need to learn through reliable channels, go to the place to find out and then make a decision...", Ms. Mai said.