Trick to extort money from customers of 'international beauty salon' in Nghe An

Signs of violation

On July 4, Ms. NTT (45 years old, Yen Thanh district) said that she had just received a refund of 18 million VND from the Mayo Clinic Nghe An branch (No. 12, Nguyen Phong Sac street, Vinh city). Ms. T. is one of many people who have filed a complaint against this cosmetic clinic to the Department of Health Inspectorate for its shady behavior and deceiving customers.

According to Ms. T., on June 14, after seeing an advertisement on social media for only 499,000 VND to treat a dark spot, she went to this cosmetic clinic. However, in reality, when she entered the Mayo Clinic cosmetic facility, the staff said that this service had increased to 1 million VND.

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Since I had already made the effort to come from the countryside to the city, I still accepted. But when I went to the second floor, preparing to treat the dark spots, another group of staff started to consult. These people started to manipulate my mind, talking like they were pouring honey into my ears. They analyzed the flaws on my face, saying that it was not good for feng shui, making me fall in love. Then they advised me to get a nose job, remove eye bags and inject smile lines. They said that just injecting 2 Korean collagen fibers into my nose would be enough to look natural, the price for 2 fibers was 14 million VND but they reduced it to 10 million VND. That's why I agreed to do it."

Ms. NTT (45 years old, Yen Thanh district)

Ms. T. was then taken to the 4th floor to have 2 collagen fibers injected into her nose. “However, after injecting 2 fibers, my nose became very unbalanced. At this time, the staff here continued to advise that I had to inject 2 more single-cell collagen fibers to look good. So they put me in a fait accompli situation, if I didn't inject 2 more fibers, my nose would be very bad, much uglier than before the beauty treatment. So I had to pay another 18 million VND to get these 2 fibers injected,” Ms. T.

Because she did not have enough money, after getting her nose done, Ms. T. decided not to get the smile lines injected and eye bags removed. However, the staff here said that the medicine had been applied and if she did not do it, her skin would sag. “Hearing what the staff said, I was also hesitant and agreed. So, from the original intention of only treating the dark spots with the advertised price of only 499,000 VND, I had to pay them 39.5 million VND,” Ms. T. added.

According to Ms. T., during the beauty treatment, the staff at the Mayo Clinic cosmetic facility had many shady behaviors. “When I first entered this cosmetic facility, they immediately separated my family members and started consulting in a closed room. I was beautified for almost a day but still did not let me go out to meet them, perhaps afraid that my family would stop me. When I entered the room, they told me to leave my phone somewhere else, with the reason being that there was no signal. Meanwhile, the 4 phones of the staff around me could be used to make calls normally. When I was short of money, they instructed me to call my relatives to borrow money, and also told me not to say that I was borrowing money for a nose job,” Ms. T. said, adding that when she first entered the room, the consultant here committed to 80% effectiveness, but when she entered the room to do it, she said it was only 30%. Up to now, after 2 times of dark spot treatment, Ms. T.'s dark spots are still the same, nothing has changed.

After returning home, believing she had been deceived, Ms. T. filed a complaint against Mayo Clinic to the Department of Health Inspectorate. “I asked for a refund of 18 million VND for 2 more Collagen injections. Because according to their initial commitment, I only needed the first 2 injections to look naturally beautiful, so I agreed. But after the 2 injections, my body became unbalanced, forcing me to have 2 more injections,” Ms. T. said.

According to the reporter's investigation, the Nghe An branch of Mayo Clinic Cosmetic Institute is not licensed to practice medicine. Here, only simple cosmetic services are allowed, no invasive, no injections, no lasers, no injections and no prescriptions. However, like many other customers, Ms. T. said that she was injected with Collagen into her nose, had her eye bags stitched and was also prescribed medication.

On July 3, after the Nghe An Department of Health Inspectorate intervened after receiving the complaint, Ms. T. also had a discussion with the Mayo Clinic Cosmetic Institute. “On July 3, I went in to have the stitches removed after they stitched me up to remove my eye bags. But at that time, they denied that they stitched me up and removed the stitches. Because they were afraid of being fined for using a laser to remove my eye bags. After nearly half a day, they finally admitted it and returned me 18 million VND, but with the condition that I withdraw my complaint and not provide any information to the press,” Ms. T. said.

The thrilling story of "rescuing" a relative from a cosmetic surgery clinic

In Nghia Dan district, Ms. Pham Phuong Th. said that until now, she still feels scared every time she remembers the time she "rescued" her biological mother from Medic Skin Beauty Salon (No. 238B, Tran Phu Street, Vinh City). According to Ms. Th., in August 2023, after getting her hair curled, because she was interested in hair care, her mother, who was over 70 years old, clicked on the advertisement page of Medic Skin Beauty Salon. After that, a female employee of this facility called and enthusiastically advised her, causing her to take the bus from Nghia Dan to Vinh City.

“I don’t know what kind of persuasion she used, but at 5am she got up to take the bus, and the staff came to the bus stop to warmly welcome her. After examining her, they said she had a dangerous fungal infection, and if left untreated, her scalp would peel off. They asked her to immediately register for a 35 million VND treatment course. Then, by some invisible force, they controlled her to call loan sharks everywhere with the promise that “after borrowing the money, they will help her pay it back”, with the condition that she would not tell her children,” Ms. Th. said.

After hearing that their mother was asking for a loan with high interest rates, Th.'s siblings immediately tried to contact her but could not reach her. The staff at the beauty salon answered the phone and said, "Your mother has finished her treatment and can only come home when she has the money to pay." When Th. asked for the specific address, she did not say anything and hung up.

According to Ms. Th., it took the whole afternoon, using all her connections, even reporting to the police, asking the telecommunications company to locate her mother's phone, but still failed. "In the end, we had to ask relatives in Nghia Son commune to call the scammers and say they had prepared enough money to lure this group to take her home. At first, this group was hesitant and kept asking to transfer the money first. But we tricked them well, so they hired a taxi with a female employee to escort my mother back to her hometown to get the money. When we just got home, we stopped them and invited the police to come and work," Ms. Th. said.

According to Ms. Th., after finishing the treatment, her mother returned home in a dazed, dazed state, not remembering where she went or why she borrowed money from everyone. But when working with the local police, this female employee said she "did not bring any documents", and when calling the beauty facility, she denied having employees take her home to get the money and said she only "asked someone to take her home" on a journey of more than 100km.

Ms. Ho Thi Hoa - Head of Vinh City Health Department said that Medic Skin Beauty Salon had been fined by Vinh City People's Committee. Specifically, on May 12, 2023, Medic Skin beauty salon business was fined a total of 22.5 million VND for providing beauty services to customers outside the scope of the granted business license, as stipulated in Clause 2, Article 6 of Decree No. 98/2020/ND-CP dated August 26, 2020 on regulations on administrative sanctions for violations in commercial activities, production, trade of counterfeit and banned goods and protection of consumer rights.

Of which, the fine is 7.5 million VND, along with 15 million VND of illegal profit gained from the violation of providing cosmetic services to customers outside the scope of the granted business license./.