Beware of year-end job "traps"

The Lunar New Year is always the time when the labor market becomes busier than ever. Businesses step up recruitment to complete year-end orders; workers, especially those who are temporarily unemployed or have free time, also look for seasonal jobs to earn extra income to cover Tet shopping expenses. This increase in demand has created opportunities for many people to take advantage, setting up sophisticated job "traps" under the guise of attractiveness, preying on the psychology of wanting to make money quickly, easily, and without skills.

Báo Phú Thọ•02/12/2025

Ms. Nguyen Thi Trang, Yen Lac commune is one of the typical cases. Because of her young children, Ms. Trang cannot work as a shift worker even though businesses are recruiting heavily at the end of the year. Hoping to find a flexible job, she decided to try her luck as a collaborator processing orders at home through a social network account claiming to be a "Shopee partner". According to the description, she only needs to place virtual orders, transfer real money, then take a photo of the invoice and send it back to receive both the principal and commission within a few minutes. The advertised commission rate is up to 8 - 12% per order, easily earning several hundred thousand per day.

Believing in the advertising, she invested nearly 2 million VND to start the job. But right after transferring the money, she did not receive the principal or commission as promised. When she contacted the “recruiter”, the account had disappeared, and the phone number was also unreachable. When she went to the bank to check, she learned that the account receiving the money could not be traced. The savings suddenly “evaporated”, leaving her with bitterness and an expensive lesson.

Beware of year-end job

Students of the College of Agricultural Mechanics learn about recruitment information at business booths.

Similar to Ms. Trang, Mr. Nguyen Van Luong in Tam Son commune also became a victim of the trap of recruiting workers to work at home. Seeing an advertisement urgently recruiting people to make Tet red envelopes, earning several hundred thousand per day, he and his wife immediately registered, paid a deposit of 1 million VND and received a box of raw materials. The couple took advantage of all their free time to complete the product. But when they sent back the finished product, most of them were criticized as "unsatisfactory", only the deposit was refunded, and the salary was only equal to a few cups of coffee. Later, he learned that many people were in the same situation, being taken advantage of by a group of intermediaries to "swindle" their labor.

Stories like Ms. Trang or Mr. Luong are not uncommon in the context of the increasing demand for jobs at the end of the year. If in the past, scams were often in the form of recruiting sales collaborators or requiring deposits to receive jobs, now the tricks have been "upgraded" with many new forms.

Fraudsters use fake accounts with carefully edited images, create fake websites that look exactly like those of large businesses, and set up chat groups on Zalo and Telegram with dozens of "bait" accounts. Some even hire people to act as consultants or team leaders to create a sense of trust. The advertised jobs sound very attractive: watch videos to earn money, post to close deals, enter payment codes, do tasks to receive rewards, paste red envelopes, fold Tet gift bags, reply to messages... All are aimed at people who want to earn income quickly, with few skills required.

Scammers often offer unrealistic income levels such as “earn 200,000 VND in 30 seconds”, “work 2-3 hours a day and earn 3-5 million/month” and require participants to deposit money, buy materials, load tasks or transfer money to “activate accounts”. When victims deposit money, they will prolong the time by assigning small tasks with low commissions, allowing them to withdraw money several times with small values to build trust. When the victim deposits more money, they immediately block communication or lock the account.

According to the police force, the risk of online fraud has increased sharply this year due to the development of artificial intelligence, automatic chatbots and virtual trading platforms. Many subjects use AI to chat naturally with victims, create electronic contracts, fake documents or websites that are identical to real websites. Technology helps criminals erase traces and constantly change their methods of operation, causing difficulties for authorities.

Faced with this situation, the police advise workers to be especially vigilant when looking for work near Tet, absolutely do not transfer deposits, participation fees, training fees or any other amount of money before signing a legal labor contract. Do not believe in jobs with "easy work, high salary", with unusually high income compared to the market.

When applying for a job at a company, always check the information about that company carefully, especially the tax code, address, phone number, and official website. Prioritize submitting your application through reputable recruitment channels such as job service centers and the company's official website. When detecting signs of fraud, keep the evidence and immediately report it to the police to promptly prevent, combat, and handle it effectively.

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