Many 'tricks' to deceive the elderly

“Refundable purchases” on 0 VND tours

Buying goods and getting a refund, this seemingly made-up story is applied by the sellers and many elderly people have fallen into the "trap" of buying goods because of gullibility and trust. The trick of these subjects is to organize customer conferences, show gratitude to housewives, introduce products and participate in "0 VND tour" programs and then use the "buying goods and getting a refund" trick to sell products of unknown origin, with unverified product quality at prices many times higher than the real value of the product.

They promised to return the money, but when the "customers" took out nearly ten million VND, they "ran away". More worryingly, these subjects often asked prestigious people in the locality, such as village chiefs and neighborhood group leaders, to hand-deliver invitations to the people. They even sent invitations through the organization of the elderly to ask them to hand-deliver invitations to members to create trust. Incidents like this have been warned by authorities in many localities, but new victims continue to appear.

Poor quality products were seized in a case of defrauding the elderly.

Although the incident has been over a month, up to now, Mr. Nguyen Van A, residing in Hoan Kiem district, Hanoi, said that he is still shocked when remembering the "zero-dong sightseeing tour" that he and his wife experienced. Mr. A and his wife are both retired.

At the end of November 2022, he was informed by the head of the residential group that the elderly in the ward were sponsored by a company for a free tour in Bac Ninh and Lang Son. Because it was free, Mr. A and his wife and many others registered to participate. The tour program was packed with locations in Bac Ninh and Lang Son provinces but lasted only 1 day. Early in the morning of November 25, 2022, the tour group departed. After visiting 2 relics in Bac Ninh province, the group was taken to a restaurant in Bac Ninh city for a meal, then invited to a large room. Here, a person claiming to be an employee of the organizing unit introduced to the group members a series of functional food products with miraculous uses. The person claiming to be an employee of the organizing unit said that all of the above products would be given to the group members. Then, ask the members of the group to buy for filming, taking photos, and promoting the product. The money the members of the group buy will be refunded. When the members of the group know the purpose, they are very cooperative to help the unit promote the product. The money spent on the purchase will also be refunded according to the previous promise.

Seeing the bustling buying and selling scene taking place in the room, Mr. A and his wife were quickly drawn in. However, Mr. A said that the products that were returned were all of very low value.

With a similar scenario, the staff of the organizing unit continued to advertise more valuable functional food products. After the advertisement, the members of the tour group also enthusiastically "opened their wallets" for millions of dong, some even spent nearly ten million to buy the products. However, when the tour group had not yet received their money back, the self-proclaimed staff of the organizing unit "disappeared" without reason. The incident has now been reported to the authorities.

Free health check-ups to "entice" buying fake goods Organizing health check-ups and giving out free medicine to create prestige and trust, then "entice" the elderly to buy the goods - an old trick but still has new victims. For example, the case of Ms. Tran Thi H's mother, residing in Tay Ho district, Hanoi, was "entice" to buy a "fake" pan for nearly 2 million VND in a free health check-up program.

The thing is, Ms. H's mother is over 80 years old this year. She often participates in free medical examination and medicine distribution activities held in the ward. If the previous times, Ms. H's mother only brought back health supplements, this time she brought a pan which, according to her, is an imported multi-purpose pan. "The seller advertised this pan as imported from Korea. The pan has many uses such as frying, grilling, and baking. In particular, the pan can also make popcorn for children. Just put the corn kernels in and after a while, it will pop into popcorn," Ms. H's mother excitedly said.

The seller said that today only the pan was discounted by 50%, which means it was now 1.7 million VND. Seeing that the foreign pan had many functions, Ms. H's mother did not have any money with her, so she ran home and borrowed money from a neighbor to buy it. However, when Ms. H opened the pan from the box, a very unpleasant plastic smell arose. The non-stick coating on the surface easily peeled off when used. The quality of the pan was not as advertised. The organizer had already run away, and Ms. H had to take 1.7 million VND to pay off her mother's debt. "I don't dare cook with this pan because the quality is not guaranteed, and I don't dare give it to anyone, so I just threw it in the corner of the kitchen," Ms. H said in frustration.

Faced with these “tricks” to deceive the elderly, people, especially the elderly, need to be more vigilant. When detecting incidents, it is necessary to report to the competent authorities to prevent and handle them promptly.