Student scams involving easy jobs, high salaries, and cheap accommodation trap them.

In her very first month as a student, Khong Thi Thuong, from Hanoi Medical College, was scammed out of 1 million VND because she believed posts on Facebook groups about finding cheap rental rooms.

Scams involving cheap rental rooms

In early September 2023, after learning of her university acceptance, Thuong went to Hanoi to look for accommodation. While browsing Facebook, the female student saw a post in a group titled "Looking for accommodation in Thanh Liet, Hoang Mai, Kim Giang areas of Hanoi" with a fairly cheap room for rent at 1.8 million VND/month, which suited her budget.

Thuong proactively messaged the person who posted the ad - an account named Thuy Tam - and received very enthusiastic advice from this person, who sent videos and photos of the rooms and clearly explained all the prices of the services included.

One of the fraudulent posts on the group "Looking for accommodation in Thanh Liet, Hoang Mai, Kim Giang areas of Hanoi".

Thuong suggested that she come and see the room in person before paying the deposit, but the person refused, instead asking for her phone number for more detailed advice, and urged her, "If you don't pay the deposit quickly, there won't be any rooms left; many people are also inquiring."

Because she had previously had a hard time finding suitable accommodation near the school, Thuong decided to put down a deposit for a room right away. After successfully transferring the money, the student was immediately blocked by the person and could no longer message them. Despite trying to call back, she was unable to contact them.

"When I realized I'd been scammed, I didn't dare tell my parents and just accepted the loss. This is the first lesson in my life that I lost money because I trusted people too much," Thuong said sadly. Currently, Thuong is staying in a friend's rented room until she finds suitable accommodation.

Lam Hoang Long, a first-year student at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, also found himself in a similar situation of losing money. On his first day of university, Long shared a room with two friends, but finding their schedules and lifestyles incompatible, he decided to move out and live alone.

After searching in many places without finding a suitable room, he found that the cheap rooms were too cramped and shared bathrooms, while the larger rooms were too expensive. He decided to seek help from a real estate agency on Thai Thinh Street, Dong Da District. The agency's staff requested a fee of 500,000 VND and would provide him with information on available rooms and addresses for his reference.

After paying, Long went to 4-5 rooms at the provided addresses, but the landlords informed him that all rooms were occupied or unavailable. He called the company and was given 3 more rooms, but when he tried to call the landlords, he couldn't reach them.

After running around to many places without success, Long returned to the company to complain, but they said they were no longer responsible and could only offer the excuse that "whether we find it or not depends on luck." "I didn't dare make a big deal out of it, so I had to leave disappointed without getting any results," Long shared resentfully.

The scam of easy jobs with high salaries.

Besides groups for renting rooms, there are also many job-seeking groups, which can easily mislead first-year students into believing they can easily find easy jobs with high salaries.

Dinh Minh Hau, a first-year student at Hanoi College of Electronics and Refrigeration, recently lost 1 million VND after believing job postings online.

Hau's family was struggling financially, so from the moment he started university, he joined Facebook groups to look for part-time jobs. He accessed the group "Finding part-time jobs in Hanoi" and found many high-paying jobs that suited his schedule, which piqued his interest.

Facebook is flooded with groups dedicated to finding full-time and part-time jobs.

Upon further inquiry about the job, Hau found that he met all the requirements, but the company demanded upfront payments for items such as uniforms, application processing fees, and health check-up fees... totaling nearly 1 million VND.

Because of the high salary and flexible working hours, Hau paid without suspicion. After paying, they scheduled an interview at the company address the next day.

The next day, when he arrived at the company address for the interview, he discovered it was just a small alley filled with residential houses. Hau asked the neighbors and learned that there had never been any company in the area before.

Panicked, he quickly checked his phone to find the chat history with the recruiter, only to discover that all messages had been deleted without a trace, and he couldn't reach them by phone either. The student was stunned to realize he had been scammed. "I've heard a lot about online scams, but I never thought I would become a victim myself," Hau expressed.

According to Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Mai, Deputy Head of the Department of Sociology and Development at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, new students, and even second and third-year students, are currently facing very sophisticated scams.

She has witnessed students complaining about losing money due to online scams on social media. This affects the finances of students from disadvantaged backgrounds, causing anxiety and instability, especially for newly enrolled students.

Some of the reasons for this situation are that students lack skills, are less proactive in in-depth research, and do not think about problems from a fundamental perspective. Therefore, when receiving information, they are easily swayed by exaggerated claims (easy jobs, high salaries, or advertisements from employers, websites selling or renting cheap but high-quality goods, etc.).

She offered several solutions for students to mitigate this situation, suggesting that when students seek part-time jobs, they should find a reputable employment agency, thoroughly research the job before applying, including the job description and contract terms.

"Students need to equip themselves with knowledge and skills such as researching information, knowing how to exploit and understand the nature of things, because no job is easy and successful. To avoid falling into scams, when buying, selling, or renting a house, they need to research through reliable channels, visit the place in person before making a decision…," Ms. Mai said.

Khanh Son

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