Multi-level marketing - a bitter trap

The "storm" called Lien Ket Viet multi-level marketing has temporarily subsided, but in Xuan Duc Village (My Hao, Hung Yen) and perhaps many villages across 27 provinces and cities of the country, the people are still suffering and will have to suffer the severe consequences for a long time.

This is a shocking scam with "records": It took place in an extremely short time - 2 years but 60,000 people were caught, the total amount of money scammed was up to nearly 2,000 billion VND!

We met an 87-year-old woman with her left arm in a cast. Her name was Nguyen Thi Mach from Xuan Dao village. The burden of age and time had caused her back to collapse, and the worry of losing the money she had paid to Lien Ket Viet had made the wrinkles on her face even more crisscrossed.

The Investigation Police Agency - Ministry of Public Security has arrested Le Xuan Giang, head of Lien Ket Viet Company.

He said: “I have some money saved so that my children and grandchildren can take care of my funeral. But they came to entice me, saying that I only need to pay 8.6 million VND and sit there and wait, and after a few years I will have 409 million VND. Moreover, I will receive my salary twice a month (100,000 VND). Just think about it, I will just pay it, save the money every month, if I don’t live for another 5 years, I will take that large sum of money and leave some wealth for my children and grandchildren. Who would have thought…”.

He had 8.6 million VND, all paid into one code, and received two "salaries", each time 100,000 VND, then the "agent" Lien Ket Viet in Xuan Duc went bankrupt along with the main company. He felt ashamed in front of his children, because he was old and still foolish. He also used a cane to go to the "agent's" house to ask for payment, but they did not pay, and flatly denied: "No promise".

On the way, he was absent-minded and regretful, tripped and fell, now he has to put a cast on his left arm. Knowing that we came to investigate the fraud case of Lien Ket Viet Company in Hung Yen, he came to the appointment with us the earliest, told us with his teeth, cried with his teeth, looked very sad...

When they learned that our group of reporters were coming to Xuan Duc, many victims of fraud called each other to come and explain, even though they knew that we would not be able to help them get back the money they had foolishly spent on “multi-level marketing”. The house of Ms. Phu, also a victim in this case, was soon filled with people coming to “criticize” the fraudsters.

The simple rural women who had struggled to make a living now had to bear the additional sadness of losing their property, so their faces were all gloomy. They said that the "agent" of Lien Ket Viet in Xuan Duc commune was Nguyen Khac Minh and his wife Le Thi Tuyet. On the day of the "agent's" launch, Minh borrowed the entire commune People's Committee headquarters to organize the event.

Because Minh advertised this as a company of the Ministry of Defense, a model for hunger eradication and poverty reduction, Minh himself was also a soldier, often wearing military uniforms at inauguration ceremonies or explaining about participating in multi-level marketing, so people believed him. Moreover, people in the same village, even relatives, Minh still said: "If the company goes bankrupt, I will use my family money to pay you". This person invited that person, the poorer the people, the more they tried to think and cling to hope for a future ahead. Many people even borrowed money at interest to send to Minh...

If we compare the amount of money that Xuan Duc residents were scammed with other victims of Lien Ket Viet, it is not much, tens of millions, several tens of millions to several hundred million per person. However, looking at their circumstances, some people have no more than a few million in assets, so the amount of money will clearly show the long-term consequences.

While collecting chicken and duck feathers, hearing that we were coming, Ms. Pham Thi Xuan, 54 years old, hurriedly rode her bicycle with a bag of scrap metal back. Her body was stiff from the hardship, tears streaming down her face, Ms. Xuan said that she had no husband or children, and was currently supporting her elderly mother. Every day, she went to collect scrap metal, pick up chicken and duck feathers to earn money to support her mother. When the “agent” of Lien Ket Viet appeared in Xuan Duc, she also tried to listen to a few presentations about multi-level marketing with the money-making model.

Victims Pham Thi Xuan, Pham Thi Oanh and Nguyen Thi Mach are miserable because they fell into a multi-level marketing trap.

At night, Ms. Xuan could not sleep, the poor woman's sleep was disturbed by the numbers 8.6 million became 409 million, and the more codes, the more profit. For her, she had never thought of the number of hundreds of millions; yet, according to Minh, she only needed to invest very little to get billions. Many sleepless nights, Ms. Xuan spent all the capital she had saved after many years of buying scrap, bought 3 codes, borrowed interest to buy 7 more codes to enjoy the VIP level.

Suddenly, Lien Ket Viet collapsed, Minh washed his hands of it, and the poor woman's dream of changing her life quickly vanished like a soap bubble. She could work hard to support her mother, but what about the 60 million VND loan with an interest rate of 10-12%, when will she be able to pay it back? And the interest will continue to grow...

Ms. Xuan pointed to her skinny legs and said with tears in her eyes: “I have a hamstring tumor, kidney failure, and liver failure, but if I want to have surgery, where will I get the money? And the burden of paying interest every day, before, my children and I could only occasionally get a piece of meat, now we have to live on vegetables and porridge. I don’t know if I will have enough health to go to work every day.”

Many women came to us, just sitting quietly, wiping away their tears in shame. They were also victims, but they hid their MLM business from their husbands and children and had to suffer silently alone. If their relatives knew that the money the whole family had saved for years had disappeared with “that guy” Lien Ket Viet, there would definitely be tragedies.

Mrs. Pham Thi Oanh, 52 years old, who was cheated out of money to buy 14 votive papers, said while holding her grandchild: "Luckily my husband is dead, otherwise if he were still alive and knew about this, he would have killed him." Mrs. Oanh is somewhat related to Nguyen Khac Minh's family.

For the past three years, people from Thien Ngoc Minh Uy Company have enticed her to play MLM, but she has refused to do so. Because Minh's aunt is her sister-in-law, and Minh is very sweet, saying that if she doesn't like playing after a year, Minh and his wife will return the codes and pay the interest. However, when the game broke down, she sat and waited for days and nights but Minh and his wife did not pay her a single penny. Now she has had to sell a piece of land to pay off her debt (because Ms. Oanh borrowed money at interest to buy the codes), and has to work hard every month to pay the interest and does not know when she will be able to pay back the principal to them.

That is why there is a tear-jerking story told by the investigator of the Economic Police Department of Hung Yen Province Police. When the investigator went to the victim’s home address to take her statement, he only met her husband. Knowing that his wife had participated in a multi-level marketing scheme and had been deceived, the 62-year-old husband left the customer alone and ran down to the field where his wife was planting to “kick and punch” the woman who had suddenly left the family penniless. The investigators had to jump into the field to rescue the wife and became reluctant mediators.

According to investigators from the Economic Police Department of Hung Yen Province Police, in Hung Yen there are currently more than 600 victims of the Lien Ket Viet Multi-level Marketing Company. Each family has its own story, but their pain will last a long time.

Remembering the story of the super swindler Le Xuan Giang, Chairman of the Board of Directors of Lien Ket Viet Company in the Detention Camp, he lamented: "A lot of money cannot be taken away when you die". But he did not know that because of his reckless money-making, many villages were swept away by the storm of "multi-level marketing". More than 60 thousand victims are more than 60 thousand lives that cannot be peaceful. Some people died suddenly, some people hanged themselves, many people left their villages and homes. Many families, husbands, wives, children were separated...

Have multi-level marketing companies ever thought about this, or do they only know how to scam and think of ways to “burn money”? And do authorities like the Competition Management Department of the Ministry of Industry and Trade think about the tens of thousands of people who are suffering because of fraudulent multi-level marketing, to tighten licensing and management?

Currently, according to statistics from the authorities, there are still nearly 60 multi-level marketing businesses licensed to operate in Vietnam. Among them, there are certainly many “disasters” similar to “Lien Ket Viet”. More than ever, to “stop the storm of multi-level marketing fraud”, the decisive involvement of the authorities is needed!

According to CAND