Villagers were fooled by crooks

(Baonghean) - Previously, the road from Kim Son Town to the border commune of Thong Thu (Que Phong) was only about 40 km, but it took almost a half-day to travel. Now, the road is paved, motorbikes glide smoothly, and it only takes a few dozen minutes to get there. However, awareness of security, law, and vigilance of a part of the people here is still limited. Therefore, bad guys have taken advantage of the opportunity to infiltrate the area and commit fraud...

Mr. Quang Van Thanh - Chief of Thong Thu Commune Police said that people in 13 villages in the commune were still surprised and amazed by the story that happened to Mr. Ha Van Nhuan (27 years old) in Muong Piet village, a village adjacent to Vieng Phan village cluster, Sam To district, Hua Phan province (Lao PDR) who was scammed out of 7 million VND.

That day, Mr. Nhuan received a message from a strange number inviting him to enter the prize by recharging the scratch card code into their phone number. He immediately went to buy a Viettel card worth 100,000 VND, scratched the code and wrote it in a message and sent it to the strange number to enter the prize. A week later, he received a message informing him that he had won double the amount. And Mr. Nhuan was a lucky case that was given special priority to continue playing with a 100% chance of winning, recharging 1 to win 2. Play until reaching 7 million VND in scratch card money, then the organizers will come to the place to award the prize. But it must be kept secret, if it is revealed, all results will be deleted to reserve.

Born and raised in a "remote" place, Nhuan thought that the person on the other end of the line was also someone he could trust because they had a "clear phone number" (!) He worked hard, earning money and borrowing from friends, until he had loaded enough cards to finally "reach the finish line" of 7 million. He confidently called the other phone number, and the person on the other end of the line congratulated him, suggesting that they immediately set up a tent, borrow tables and chairs for the "working group" to come to present awards and do charity work in the village.

Listening to Nhuan tell the story, everyone in Muong Piet couldn't help but feel bored. Only then did Nhuan feel guilty and call the other person back, but he only heard the sound of... the operator: "The subscriber you have called is currently unavailable...". At this time, listening to everyone's analysis, then reporting to the police, Nhuan realized that he had been "tricked", lost money, was laughed at, and had a debt.

Ms. Luong Thi Hong - Chairwoman of Thong Thu Commune (Que Phong) talked with Nghe An Newspaper reporter.

Ms. Luong Thi Hong - Chairman of the People's Committee of Thong Thu commune said that sometimes when villagers met her, they would ask: "Sister, I also just bought an induction cooker like yours, is your stove still good? I heard that the chairwoman bought one, so my family followed suit", "Hong, our family also just bought a gas stove like yours, our family also has a gas stove like the chairwoman's"... After asking, we found out that the scammers had "borrowed her name" as "trust" in order to deceive the villagers.

Since the asphalt road from the town to Thong Thu was built, small trucks occasionally carry goods to the highlands to sell to people. Each truck is like a small store, selling all kinds of groceries. Some trucks carry all kinds of gas stoves, induction cookers, hot pot stoves... with a form of buying and selling that shows signs of fraud. According to Ms. Luong Thi Hong, the tricks of these subjects are very cunning. Taking advantage of the gullibility and the mentality of believing and following "cadres" of the villagers, before entering the area, they ask for the names and addresses of commune cadres, especially key cadres. Using the form of buying prizes to sell at sky-high prices, and when offering goods, they always say "comrade this", "comrade that" in the commune just bought it. A poor quality gas stove with a market price of about 500,000 VND is sold for 3-4 million VND to people, with the trick of "buying goods with rewards". The villagers liked the price but the prizes, and the commune officials trusted them when they bought them. And strangely, the villagers always “won” the prize with an amount double the amount of money they had to spend on the goods. However, the money for the goods had to be paid in advance, and the “prize” had to be communicated to the downstream so that the “working group” could come and give it to them the next day. However, after selling the goods and receiving the money, the goods truck “quietly left” and there was no date to return to “give the prize”.

A mobile sales vehicle in Loc village (Thong Thu commune, Que Phong), (photo taken on October 23, 2014).

Thong Thu Commune Police Chief Quang Van Thanh said that it is very difficult to detect such scams. Because people often do not report them, and the scammers have already "run away". To prevent this situation, the commune has now directed the commune police to coordinate with organizations to step up propaganda work to raise vigilance and ensure security and order in the area. Through the loudspeaker system, through the village cadre system, people's meetings and clearly explain the sophisticated scam tricks of bad guys so that the villagers can learn from their experience. Whenever a stranger comes to buy and sell with the form of reward, they must be extremely vigilant and report to the police or border guard station to distinguish between real and fake.

Duc Duong