Nghe An: Many people are miserable because they received notification of winning prizes after shopping online.

“Buy a pot, win a billion”?

For many months now, the family of Ms. Vo Thi Thanh Huyen (40 years old, Cua Nam ward, Vinh city) has continuously received postal packages sent to their home. In those packages are"winning announcement", with "realistic" words, urging customers to take the next steps to receive the money. Receiving the winning notification not only caused her family to be annoyed, even losing money, but also made the family atmosphere tense.

Ms. Huyen said that nearly a year ago, her father-in-law - Mr. Vu Duc Binh (67 years old) - ordered a cooking pot after seeing an advertisement on TV. During the ordering process, Mr. Binh left an address for the seller to send the goods and a phone number for contact. "About a month later, the family received a notification that my father was a lucky customer, winning a motorbike. But to receive the prize, he was required to buy another product. At that time, my father did not believe it, thinking it was a scam, so he ignored it," Ms. Huyen said.

Mr. Binh received notification of winning one billion VND. Photo: TH

After a while, in October 2020, her family received another "urgent notice" about winning a prize from Smart Shopping. This time, the notice said that Mr. Binh was the "lucky customer" who won a prize worth up to one billion VND.

“We are extremely pleased to inform you that the special prize worth 1,000,000,000 VND from Smart Shopping has been prepared and will be awarded to the winner soon. Therefore, we are looking forward to receiving your feedback. Do not hesitate any longer, follow the instructions and reply to us immediately... Among thousands of customers who have shopped during the past time, Smart Shopping has specially selected you to give you the chance to win and receive a very special prize. This may seem unbelievable, but it is true...”, the words in Smart Shopping's winning announcement stated.

Some announcements also include representative images of famous artists. Photo: TH

In this notice, there is a “top secret sticker” covering a series of numbers that clearly shows Mr. Binh’s phone number, which Smart Shopping believes is the winning code if it matches Mr. Binh’s real phone number. However, the received notice also asks the family to submit a request for a prize and to order more products. “This time the notice was very elaborate, and they also sent notices continuously, with words and images that made my father think it was real. The notice also included a photo and statement from a famous artist. The prize was so big that he kept asking to do as requested,” Ms. Huyen said.

In the following days, Mr. Binh was very excited, even showing off to his neighbors and friends about the one billion dong that “fell from the sky”. He constantly urged his children to follow the request in the notice to receive the bonus soon. To please her father, Ms. Huyen followed the request and spent nearly 2 million dong more just to buy 2 packages of functional foods from this company.

After completing the steps required by the company, Mr. Binh eagerly awaited the day he received his bonus. However, instead of receiving any news, his family only received a congratulatory message that he “was lucky enough to make it to the next round”, and continued to request additional steps to receive the bonus, including the purchase of additional products. This time, the value of the products increased to a much larger amount.

One of a series of "urgent letters" that Mr. Binh's family received. Photo: TH

“After we get to the next round, there will be more rounds. But my father still believes it and keeps asking to buy more products. We had to hide it from him and say we have done as requested. Now he is still waiting for the bonus. It is so miserable,” said Huyen.

Ms. Huyen’s family is not the only victim in Nghe An who has lost money because of such notices. “I even followed their requests many times. I bought a lot of products and filled the table but in the end I didn’t see any rewards, I only lost money buying products that I didn’t use,” said a man who asked to remain anonymous and lives in Hung Dung ward (Vinh city).

Not a new scam

To verify the incident, the reporter followed the address that Smart Shopping advertised. However, this is just a "ghost address", not a real one in Ho Chi Minh City. In the "winning notices" sent to customers, it is also easy to recognize suspicious points. In which, there is no information about this company. The person named Luong Thanh Thanh, claiming to be the director of Smart Shopping in this notice, only committed that the amount of one billion VND will be awarded and that he or a representative will personally attend the award ceremony. But it did not specify where and when the award ceremony will take place?...

Searching online, I found that this company's website advertises Smart Shopping as a Smart Shopping brand operating with a mail-order business model. "Currently, the group is present in Russia, Indonesia, Malaysia and will continue to many other countries. Today, Smart Shopping is proud to come to Vietnam. We bring you a smart, convenient and especially safe shopping method....".

Although it advertises itself as an “international corporation”, the address provided on this website is not real. In addition, the reporter has also contacted the phone number provided by the website as the company’s hotline but has not been able to contact it. In addition, the domain name smartshoppingvn.com of this “corporation” also seems to be impersonating a website specializing in online shopping licensed in Hanoi, which is smartshopping.com.vn.

This website has a domain name similar to an online shopping channel based in Hanoi. Photo: TH

According to the reporter's investigation, in fact, this is not a new scam. In the past, many people have lost money like Mr. Binh. From self-proclaimed online shopping centers Go Shopping, to TV Home Shopping System, then TVShop... After obtaining customer information, scammers often call or send notifications to customers' homes to "inform them of the good news" that they have won a prize. But to receive the bonus, customers must go through many steps, including buying many more products with unusually high values. Many people thought it was real, had to buy product packages worth hundreds of millions of dong, but the bonus still did not arrive.

Another common point of these "shopping channels" is that the addresses provided to customers are all "ghost addresses", and the phone numbers are "junk SIMs", and after the scam is successful, there is no longer any contact.

Smart Shopping's realistic winning announcement. Photo: TH

In recent years, the Department of Competition and Consumer Protection, the Ministry of Industry and Trade and many other authorities have repeatedly warned about online and telephone sales fraud. However, this situation is still widespread in many localities. Especially in the past year, due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic, people have limited their travel and often prioritize online shopping.

In order to prevent damage and risks to consumers when receiving advertising information, invitations to buy, sell, and use goods and services, the Department of Competition and Consumer Protection recommends that consumers: Be cautious with forms of invitations to buy goods, information notifications via phone, text messages, especially from mobile phone numbers with ambiguous and inaccurate business information. When listening to advice, consumers should be alert, avoid being drawn into advertising information or winning information, easily losing vigilance against the subject's tricks. In all situations, consumers need to check the information provided by the subject to ensure accuracy, especially not following the subject's checking instructions (for example, the subject instructs consumers to call another phone number to check...).