Impersonating 'successful former students' to give gifts and deceive former teachers in Nghe An is on the rise

On September 21, Mr. Pham Huy Duc - Chief of Office of Nghe An Retired Teachers Association said that he had just sent a letter to the leaders of the Teachers Association of districts, cities and towns to warn about the fraud of buying goods at high prices, through programs such as seminars and gift giving. "Since 2019, we have sent an official dispatch to the Teachers Association of districts about this issue. Now that this situation is widespread, we are just sending a letter to remind them again," said Mr. Duc.

Not only approaching former teachers in Yen Thanh and Thanh Chuong, a group of people claiming to be "successful former students" recently also contacted the Association of Former Teachers in Thai Hoa town and Do Luong district to raise the issue of "giving gifts of gratitude to teachers". However, in Thai Hoa town, this group of people was flatly refused by the Association's leaders. In Do Luong district, the Association's leaders also requested that this group of people only give gifts, not introduce products for sale, and at the same time thoroughly informed the members. Therefore, in some communes, the group of "former students" was refused by teachers to accept gifts of gratitude, in some communes, they only accepted the gifts, and when this group of people brought out products to introduce for sale, the teachers all left.

"At the Provincial Association of Former Teachers, there were two groups from Hanoi and Ho Chi Minh City who came and offered us money to be introduced to the lower levels, however, we flatly refused. We did not take the money and did not issue any introduction letters. Unfortunately, there are still gullible people in the association, so despite repeated warnings, they were still deceived," added Mr. Pham Huy Duc.

The leader of the Nghe An Retired Teachers Association also affirmed that the Association has never had a document introducing any organization for marketing, advertising or photography... at the grassroots level.

Recently, a group of people claiming to be "successful former students" contacted the leaders of the Association of Former Teachers in the districts to give gifts to express gratitude to teachers. The gifts were of low value, some even of unknown origin. However, right after the gift giving, this group used sweet words, appealing to the psychology of "liking cheap promotions" to persuade old teachers to buy functional foods at prices many times higher than the market price. After successfully selling the products, when the teachers discovered they had been ripped off, the phone numbers of these "former students" were no longer reachable.

In Hoa Thanh commune, on September 17, 15 old teachers were tricked into buying functional foods, with a total amount of tens of millions of VND after attending a gratitude ceremony of "former students". In Thanh Chuong district, with the same trick, in recent days, dozens of retired teachers in many communes were also tricked. In Phong Thinh commune, even after hearing that "former students" had returned, the Association hung a banner to welcome them.

On September 19, while "distributing gifts" at the cultural house in Thanh Nho commune, this group of people was discovered and stopped by local authorities, and invited to the police headquarters for questioning. Here, this group claimed to be sales staff of Saigon Pharmaceutical Trading Company Limited. For now, Thanh Chuong District Police have asked those who bought the products to return the goods to get their money back.

Nghe An Retired Teachers Association was officially established in 2007, currently has more than 20,000 members. There are 21 district-level associations and 2 affiliated associations, 420 communes, wards and towns have organized associations with 399 grassroots Retired Teachers Associations.