Spending 20-40 million VND on plane tickets to return home to celebrate Lunar New Year with their families but being scammed, many Vietnamese students in Australia sadly stay because they don't have money to buy new tickets, others turn to buying cheap tickets.

Nguyen Ngoc Nhu Y, a Pathology major in Sydney (Australia), was scammed out of 1,000 USD (more than 22 million VND) to buy a plane ticket back to Vietnam through seller Vi Tran. She currently has no money to buy a new ticket. Her mother in Vietnam is eager to welcome her daughter home for Tet. When she learned that she was scammed and might not be able to return, she cried all day.

"I miss home, my mom and my grandma so much that I don't know what to do. The ticket prices for the dates I want to go and return are quite high. If I buy a ticket to go home, I have to pay for it myself, so I'm trying to work extra to see if I can find a cheap ticket from another airline," Nhu Y confided, adding that her father, who is in Australia, is very angry with her for being scammed.

Having not been home for Tet with her mother for 3 years, when she received her overtime salary and money from her family, Nhu Y eagerly booked a ticket right away. Through a friend, Nhu Y learned about Vi Tran, who sells Vietnam Airlines tickets online for 300-400 USD (6-8 million VND) cheaper than other agents and has received many good reviews.

Illustration photo.

After 1-2 weeks of discussion, seeing that all her requests were enthusiastically met, Nhu Y decided to book a round-trip ticket from Vietnam to Australia for February 1-17 for 1,000 USD. "Vi promised to transfer the ticket immediately, but she had to be urged 2-3 times before she sent me the ticket. Because I was busy with work, I did not check the ticket as usual and believed that everything was fine," the female student said.

Her cousin needed to return to Vietnam urgently on January 1, so Nhu Y continued to look for Vi Tran to book a round-trip ticket and was able to buy it for 1,900 USD, while other agents were charging 2,300-2,400 USD. On the day of the flight, Vi Tran reported that the ticket had a problem, had to postpone the flight for a day and would refund the money. "A few days after my cousin returned to Vietnam, the internet was abuzz with information that Vi had scammed money. I hurriedly called the airline to check and received information that the ticket I bought was invalid. My cousin's ticket did not have a return flight," Nhu Y shared.

Tran Bao (currently working in Australia) said that his girlfriend, who had just come to Australia to study for 8 months, was also scammed out of 1,200 USD (more than 25 million VND) when buying a plane ticket back to Vietnam and had to cancel the trip because she did not want to ask her parents for more money. "However, the family in Vietnam booked a ticket with another airline for 800 USD for my girlfriend, even though they were quite worried about flight safety, service quality, which was rumored to be poor, and often late," Bao said.

According to this young man, most of the other people who were scammed and wanted to return home for Tet had booked new cheap tickets. When buying, everyone was cautious because they were still confused after the scam. Bao, Nhu Y and many Vietnamese students studying in Australia were informed that Vietnam Airlines would support them.discount tickets for scammed studentsHowever, because it is only applicable to flights departing on January 13-15, international students cannot arrange their study and work schedules to return on time.

"The courses here are still ongoing. If you want to return home, you have to notify the school early to change the class date. Most of the people who were tricked into buying tickets have already arranged their schedules with the school, so even though the airfares have been reduced, the time is so urgent that it is difficult for anyone to go. For working people like me, it is even more difficult because if I quit, I have to notify a month in advance so that my employer can arrange a replacement. If I leave midway, I will lose my job," Bao shared.

January 13,suspect in airline ticket fraud caseVietnamese students studying in Australia were arrested by the police. This information makes the victims feel relieved. However, many people believe that it is very difficult to get back the lost money and identify this scam as an expensive lesson.

According to VNE