Attending the gratitude ceremony of 'successful former students', many former teachers in Nghe An were tricked into buying goods at high prices.

On September 20, Mr. Nguyen Khac Duc - Chairman of the People's Committee of Hoa Thanh Commune (Yen Thanh), said that he had just reminded and criticized the hamlet officials and related people for arbitrarily lending the cultural house to a group of people to sell goods at high prices under the form of giving gifts of gratitude.

"This group of people returned but did not notify the local authorities, so they were not aware of the situation and could not prevent it early, causing many elderly people to be deceived. After investigation, this group was introduced by the District Association of Former Teachers. We have also thoroughly informed all the hamlets to learn from their experience," said Mr. Duc.

According to Mr. Nguyen Minh Ngoc - Chairman of the Association of Former Teachers of Yen Thanh District, on Sunday morning (September 17), he received a phone call from a woman claiming to be a former student. "This person said she was from Thanh Chuong, but had studied in Yen Thanh since childhood. She said she had returned from France, and now she was successful, so she wanted to return to her hometown to show gratitude to her teachers. She asked me to introduce her to the commune to give her gifts," Mr. Ngoc said, adding that he believed this person and then called the Association of Former Teachers of Hoa Thanh and Lien Thanh communes and prioritized selecting 80 elderly former teachers.

"When I called to introduce the event, I also told the teachers in the commune that they could only accept gifts, and not buy or sell anything. But when the event was organized, I don't know how they persuaded them, but they rushed to buy. This is an expensive lesson for us," said Mr. Ngoc.

In Hoa Thanh commune, this group of people distributed 40 gifts to 40 people, each gift included massage bottles, wind oil..., announced to be worth 300,000 VND. After giving gifts and singing, this group of people suddenly brought out the products and introduced them as "anti-stroke medicine".

"They are very good at talking, introducing the medicine's effects very well. They said a box of medicine costs 2.8 million VND, and you have to use a course of 3 boxes to see the effect. In addition, if you buy 1 box, you will get 2 more boxes for free. Those who pay immediately will only pay 2.5 million VND per box, but if they come back a few weeks later, the price will be 2.8 million VND. Seeing the discount, afraid that they will lose another 300,000 VND in the next few days, everyone ran home to find money to buy it," said Mr. Phan Van Ngoc - Chairman of the Association of Former Teachers of Hoa Thanh Commune.

According to Mr. Phan Van Ngoc, after that, up to 15 people spent money to buy this "anti-stroke medicine box". "My wife and I also spent money to buy it because we trusted it so much. However, after returning home and asking someone to look it up online, we found out that this box is a functional food, being sold for just over 200,000 VND per box. This is a lesson for us", Mr. Phan Van Ngoc added.

In Lien Thanh commune, this group also contacted to give gifts "to show gratitude to teachers". "When the teachers came, this group gave real gifts. But maybe because they thought they couldn't sell the products, they didn't introduce the products", said the Chairman of the Association of Former Teachers of Yen Thanh district.

In a related development, on September 19, local authorities in Thanh Nho commune (Thanh Chuong) also stopped a group of people claiming to be sales staff of Saigon Pharmaceutical Trading Company Limited from introducing products to former teachers. Thanh Nho commune police then invited this group to the headquarters for questioning.

Previously, this group of people contacted the Association of Former Teachers of Thanh Nho, Thanh Lien, and Thanh Hoa communes to borrow the village's cultural house to give gifts to express gratitude to teachers, and then introduced and sold health-enhancing and stroke-preventing functional food products at high prices.

Upon receiving the information, Thanh Nho commune authorities sent people to stop them. However, at this time, this group of people had already sold the goods to dozens of former teachers, with each box costing nearly 3 million VND.