Many people in Nghe An province have been scammed when booking Tet holiday bus tickets online.
Scammers created fake fan pages and impersonated bus company hotlines to sell Tet holiday tickets, defrauding many people in Nghe An province.
Money lost, but no ticket.
Recently, with the high demand for train and bus tickets to return home for Tet (Lunar New Year), unscrupulous individuals have taken advantage of this opportunity to carry out many sophisticated scams. They create fake fan pages and social media accounts impersonating reputable bus and transportation companies, and use fake "call center" phone numbers to gain the trust of customers. When someone contacts them to book a ticket, the scammers request a deposit or ticket payment in advance, then quickly cut off contact and embezzle the entire amount.
Ms. Le Thi Thanh Van (from Nghe An province, currently residing in Da Nang) is one of the latest victims of online Tet holiday bus ticket scams. On January 15, 2026, because her usual bus companies were fully booked, she searched online for tickets for two adults and two children traveling from Nghe An to Da Nang on the 5th day of Tet (February 21, 2026). Immediately after posting the information, she was contacted by someone claiming to be a representative of Tien Tien bus company, offering tickets for 700,000 VND each, with a guarantee of meals and pick-up/drop-off service.
Trusting the scammer, and needing to book a ticket to go to work, Ms. Van transferred the deposit. However, the scammer repeatedly made excuses about "incorrect booking, missing phone number" and asked for the money back. Suspecting something was amiss, Ms. Van researched the bus company online and realized she had been scammed out of 2.8 million VND (a total of 4 transfers, 700,000 VND each), and still hadn't received her bus ticket.
Similarly, Le Dinh Hieu, a first-year student in Hanoi, also became a victim of the scam involving fake bus company fanpages. In early December 2025, needing to find bus tickets to return home for Tet (Lunar New Year), Hieu searched online. When typing "book tickets" on Facebook, he saw numerous fanpages selling Tet tickets, many of which bore the names of reputable bus companies. Believing them to be official fanpages, Hieu messaged them to book tickets. Immediately afterward, the impersonator sent a bank account number requesting him to transfer the full ticket amount under the pretext of "reserving a seat." Thinking that tickets were scarce during Tet but the prices were still advertised as not increasing compared to normal days, Hieu trusted them and transferred the money as requested. However, when he urged them to send the e-ticket, all messages were immediately deleted and the account blocked all communication. At this point, Hieu was shocked to realize he had fallen into a scam.
It's not just the cases of Ms. Le Thi Thanh Van or Mr. Le Dinh Hieu; recently, many bus companies in Nghe An have continuously received complaints from passengers about transferring deposits, or even paying the full ticket price, but still not receiving their tickets as promised. Through calls to the hotline, many customers expressed their frustration, demanding that the bus company check and issue tickets because they believed they had "successfully booked" online. However, upon verifying the information, the transportation companies discovered that those transactions did not exist in the system, and the customers had been scammed by individuals impersonating the bus company. Only then did many people realize with shock that they had transferred money to fake fan pages, phone numbers, and bank accounts that were completely unrelated to the real bus company.
Many sophisticated tricks
According to authorities, recently, with the increased demand for train, bus, and plane tickets to return home for Tet (Lunar New Year), unscrupulous individuals have taken advantage of this opportunity to carry out many sophisticated scams. They create fake fan pages and social media accounts impersonating transportation companies, using fake "call center" phone numbers to gain the trust of customers. When someone contacts them to book tickets, the scammers request a deposit or ticket payment in advance, then quickly cut off contact and embezzle the entire amount.
Notably, fake fan pages are often designed to look exactly like the real ones, from the name, profile picture, posts, to the way they respond to messages. Some even copy positive customer reviews to create a credible "facade." Therefore, without careful verification, it is very difficult for people to distinguish between real and fake pages.
The scammers' tactics are difficult to identify. In the case of Ms. Le Thi Thanh Van, they didn't just exchange booking information; they proactively messaged her with a friendly tone and familiar address, creating the feeling of dealing with a familiar bus company. They constantly asked questions, offered advice, and urged her to "reserve your seat before it's sold out," causing the victim to feel rushed and lose vigilance. In the moment of transferring money, a single touch was all it took for the transaction to be completed; only when they calmed down and checked again did many realize they had been scammed.
Regarding this issue, recently, the Nghe An Provincial Police and the police in communes and wards have continuously posted warnings and reminders to people to be vigilant when booking bus tickets online. According to the recommendations, before making any transaction, people should carefully research the bus company's information, only call the official registered hotline number, and avoid booking tickets through unverified groups, pages, or fan pages on social media. In case of any suspected fraud, absolutely do not proceed with any deposit transfers to ensure safety and avoid falling into the trap of malicious individuals.
On January 22, 2026, the Dong Kinh Commune Police (Ha Tinh Province) announced the arrest of Nguyen Chien Thang and Doan Xuan The (both born in 1999, residing in Xuan Giang Commune, Ninh Binh Province) for fraud involving the sale of bus tickets via social media. These two individuals created numerous fake Facebook and Zalo accounts, using phone numbers and bank accounts that did not belong to them, to impersonate bus companies and post advertisements for Tet holiday bus tickets on social media.
When people wanted to buy tickets and contacted them, they requested a deposit of about 50% of the ticket price to an account they provided. After receiving the money, the perpetrators would block communication with the customers and embezzle the entire amount. Using this method, from September 2025 to the present, the perpetrators have defrauded hundreds of victims in many provinces and cities nationwide, embezzling more than 200 million VND.
