Beware of 'job-running' scams to steal property

Create a cover of "wide relationships" to scam

Despite not being able to find a job, some scammers have exploited people’s desire for stable employment; at the same time, they have created for themselves a glamorous cover of important relationships to lure others into “falling into the trap”. Faced with a great demand for jobs, many people have trusted scammers and ended up in a situation of “losing money and suffering”.

Recently, many cases of job fraud, job placement and property appropriation have been brought to trial by the authorities. Typically, on August 15, 2022, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial to try two defendants Tran Anh Tuan, residing in Nghi Xuan District (Ha Tinh) and Tran Van Quan, residing in Truong Thi Ward (Vinh City) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Tuan is a doctor working at the Nghe An Vaccination Center, while Quan has no stable job. The investigation agency determined that Quan and Tuan together committed 18 acts of fraud to apply for jobs and university admissions for 51 people, with the amount of money embezzled over 3.67 billion VND. At the trial, both of them stated that they had no function or duty to arrange jobs, but had received money from many people to embezzle money and spend it for personal use. Considering the role of each defendant, the court sentenced Tran Van Quan to 16 years in prison, Tran Van Tuan to 10 years in prison.

On April 18, 2023, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a first-instance criminal trial of defendant Nguyen Van Chung, residing in Hung Phuc Commune, Hung Nguyen District, for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". Originally a long-time primary school teacher, certified as an excellent teacher, however, since understanding the need to apply for a position in the Education sector and transfer work from a difficult area to a favorable area, Chung proactively approached many people to commit fraud. Among them, there was Ms. Moong Thi H. (born in 1995), residing in Keng Du Commune, Ky Son District.

Ms. H. knew Chung through a colleague who was also a teacher. In early 2020, Chung contacted Ms. H. and lied that Ky Son district still had 3 additional positions, if she wanted, Chung could apply for Ms. H. to teach preschool... After taking 159 million VND from Ms. H., Chung cut off contact. Notably, Chung not only defrauded Ms. H., but also defrauded her cousin, who had just graduated from university and was planning to apply to teach at a high school in Ky Son district. Chung guaranteed to get her a job and offered 200 million VND. Trusting her, Ms. H.'s cousin transferred the above amount to Chung and waited for a long time but did not receive the decision to accept the job.

Similarly, Ms. Vi Thi Th., residing in Ta Ca commune (Ky Son) was also scammed by Chung for up to 500 million VND to get her 2 children to teach at a high school in Ky Son district... On December 30, 2021, Nguyen Van Chung was arrested under the Wanted Decision. The authorities clarified that from June 2019 to March 2021, Chung had scammed 14 victims, appropriating more than 2.6 billion VND. Of which, the cost of running the payroll ranged from 250-300 million VND, the cost of running the job transfer ranged from 135-240 million VND. Considering the entire case, the People's Court sentenced defendant Nguyen Van Chung to 18 years in prison for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Most recently, on August 17, 2023, Nghe An Provincial People's Court opened a trial of Cao Thi Thu Ha (born in 1990), residing in Dien Hoa commune (Dien Chau) for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". Due to debt and lack of a stable job, Cao Thi Thu Ha came up with the idea of ​​defrauding and appropriating other people's money by providing false information such as being able to buy a car at a cheap price, applying for a job at a bank to appropriate money from 3 victims, with a total amount of nearly 4.1 billion VND.

Among them, Mr. Phan The T., residing in Nghia Loc commune, Nghia Dan district, was defrauded by Ha and appropriated more than 1.5 billion VND... At the trial on August 17, 2023, Ha was sentenced to 20 years in prison for the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property".

Through a number of incidents occurring in the area, it can be seen that the trick of the job scammers is to "brag" that they have important relationships, acquaintances with leaders, relatives of leaders of agencies, organizations, state-owned enterprises... to expand their reputation and create trust. Notably, there are even subjects who are state officials, civil servants, and public employees but are eager to get rich illegally, so they still commit fraud to appropriate assets.

According to the authorities in some cases, the scammers and victims often only write papers in the form of loans, without mentioning the job application content, so the investigation faces many difficulties. This is also a warning lesson for many people who are too impatient about the job issue... and fall into the trap of scammers, causing many material and spiritual consequences.

Raise awareness

According to Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017), the act of taking advantage of people's gullibility and trust to trick them into "applying for a job" and then appropriating their money is considered the crime of "Fraudulent appropriation of property". Accordingly, the amount of money appropriated from 200 million VND to less than 500 million VND will be punished with imprisonment from 7 to 15 years. The amount of money appropriated from 500 million VND or more will be punished with imprisonment from 12 to 15 years or life imprisonment. In addition, the offender may also be fined from 10 to 100 million VND, banned from holding positions, practicing a profession or doing certain jobs from 1 to 5 years, and have part or all of their property confiscated.

To prevent and combat crimes of fraud and appropriation of property through the form of "job running", in addition to promoting propaganda in many forms, the authorities also recommend that departments, branches, sectors and localities seriously publicize and make transparent the need to recruit civil servants, public employees and workers, from providing guidance on preparing personal records, recruitment conditions and standards, registration procedures to organizing recruitment exams and announcing exam results. On the part of the people, they need to be alert to the "job running" scam to defraud and appropriate property of some subjects.

When looking for a job, it is necessary to carefully study the recruitment information of agencies, departments, branches and localities that are publicly announced on mass media or go to the place where there is a need to recruit to find out, should not put trust or hand over assets to intermediaries to avoid becoming "prey" of scammers. In case of detecting signs of fraud by the "job runner", people can report to the authorities to promptly prevent it. On the other hand, people also need to be aware that spending large sums of money to "run jobs, apply for jobs" not only contains financial risks but also legal risks, because this is a violation of the law and is strictly prohibited.