From the fake Cambridge International English certificate case, warning of sophisticated fraud tricks

On October 14, the Ministry of Public Security issued a warning regarding the fraudulent practice of impersonating foreign organizations to take international English certification exams.

According to information from the Ministry of Public Security, based on the petition of the Hanoi City Police Department of Security Investigation, the Ministry of Home Affairs has sent an official dispatch to ministries, government agencies, and People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities requesting to check and review the records of cadres, civil servants, and public employees who have declared the use of foreign language certificates under the name of the organization Cambridge International (a fake organization).

In case of detecting civil servants and public employees using certificates in violation of the law, it is recommended that competent authorities review and handle the matter according to regulations.

The Ministry of Home Affairs also requested ministries, branches and localities to step up propaganda work, requiring cadres, civil servants and public employees under their management to raise vigilance and prevent crimes; not to participate in foreign language certification exams of organizations established illegally.

Previously, in June, the Internal Political Security Department and the Investigation Security Department of Hanoi City Police concluded the investigation and transferred the case file to prosecute Le Van Vang (born in 1981, residing in My Duc district, Hanoi), Luong Viet Anh (born in 1987, residing in Long Bien district, Hanoi) and his accomplices for "fraudulent appropriation of property" when organizing exams and issuing fake Cambridge International English certificates.

According to the investigation, in 2021, Le Van Vang came up with the name Cambridge International with the original purpose of organizing English training courses, but due to the Covid-19 pandemic, it could not be implemented.

Understanding the needs of many people with limited English proficiency but needing a certificate to ensure the completion of their application for admission to agencies and units inside and outside the State, Vang proposed to cooperate with the Institute for Educational Development Cooperation Research under the Vietnam Association of Psychological and Educational Sciences, with Luong Viet Anh as Director, to organize foreign language certification exams under the name of Cambridge International.

The subjects advertised this as a prestigious organization in the world for training and granting international foreign language certificates to attract people who need certificates to register and thereby appropriate money.

To do this, Le Van Vang himself drafted an English document titled "LETTER OF ACCEPTANCE" dated May 21, 2021, translated into Vietnamese as "Letter of Acceptance" and signed by himself as Max Mooney, with a red round stamp with the content "CAMBRIDGE INTERNATIONAL CEFR".

After preparing this document, Le Van Vang transferred to Luong Viet Anh the translated copy of the "Letter of Approval" to organize advertising and organize online exams for candidates who need to obtain certificates, starting from September 25, 2022 until discovered.

The subjects bought two websites: http://cambridgetest.online and http://cbriglobal.info, rented domain names and hired people to build online test programs on the websites with 4 skills to test and evaluate (automatically score) foreign language proficiency, including listening, speaking, reading and writing.

For speaking skills, candidates record their speaking test and send it to the email address hocvalam7979@gmail.com created by Luong Viet Anh and used for grading, similar to the interface of the IELTS international English certificate exam to create trust among candidates. Luong Viet Anh provides candidates with a service to look up test results at the website http://cbriglobal.info.

Hanoi City Police Investigation Agency seized 2 seals named Cambridge International, including 1 embossed seal and 1 regular ink seal; many documents (phones, computers) related to Cambridge International examination and certification activities.

Through investigation, the subjects confessed that they had organized exams for candidates every Saturday and Sunday and had issued about 4,200 English certificates under the name Cambridge International with prices ranging from 2.3 million VND to 18 million VND/certificate (depending on the type).

Hanoi City Police have proposed that the Ministry of Home Affairs issue a written notice to the People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to conduct inspections, reviews, and detect officials, civil servants, and public employees who declare the use of Cambridge International foreign language certificates for handling according to the law.

Immediately afterwards, the Ministry of Home Affairs sent an official dispatch to ministries, ministerial-level agencies, government agencies, and People's Committees of provinces and centrally-run cities to implement the above proposal of the Hanoi City Police.