Old tricks, new victims

Many products that Ms. Vu Thi L. in Yen Lac bought at the free tour program had "sky-high" prices or no reliable information about origin, brand, or price could be found.

In mid-April, receiving an invitation to join a free tour program to Cua Lo, Nghe An , Ms. Vu Thi L. in Yen Lac eagerly prepared her luggage. But when getting on the bus, Ms. L and the group were informed to change the location because the weather at this time was not good enough to go swimming in Cua Lo.

The group was taken by the trip organizers to visit a pagoda in Pho Noi ( Hung Yen ) and then to a restaurant with a large hall for lunch. Here, because there was still a lot of time before lunch, while waiting, the organizers interacted with the group.

The representative of the organizing committee introduced the company thoroughly, the reason for the free tour and gave each person a box of calming and detoxifying tea as a gift of gratitude to the participating members.

Before they could be happy about going out, eating and receiving free gifts, the trip participants continued to be introduced to many health care products for all ages that the company is collaborating to produce and distribute.

With the sweet, professional words of the consulting team, Ms. L and many people attending the trip trusted and did not hesitate to spend money on goods, thinking that they were getting a great deal thanks to participating in the trip.

Ms. L spent more than 3 million VND to buy 1 box of powdered milk and was given 1 more box, 1 box of omega, 1 box of ginseng and deer antler for kidney tonic, 1 box of bone and joint spray, 1 box of cordyceps extract, and 1 box of organic calcium.

At the end of the exchange program, the consultants skillfully persuaded most of the elderly in the group to buy powdered milk, cordyceps, bird’s nest, red ginseng, red pine oil, organic calcium, deer antler lingzhi, joint pain spray, body-cleansing and calming tea… at “sky-high” prices. The fewest people also “contributed revenue” to the company that sponsored the trip by a few hundred thousand dong, the most people by tens of millions of dong.

When Ms. L brought the products home, her son checked and was shocked to discover the truth. The box of Calcium Nano Shark Cartilage Powdered Milk that the company advertised as worth 800,000 VND, and sold as a thank you gift at the trip for 500,000 VND, was sold widely online at many different prices, some for 700,000 VND, some for 336,000 VND, some for 252,000 VND, some for only 200,000 VND; the box of Omega that the company sponsored the trip advertised for 360,000 VND, was sold for only a few tens of thousands of VND...

It is worth mentioning that many remaining products such as cordyceps, ginseng for kidney and brain tonics, bone and joint sprays, red pine oil, organic calcium, etc. do not have reliable information about their origin, brand and price.

Recently, the situation of some companies through associations and organizations at the grassroots level inviting people to participate in free tours but the main purpose is to sell products of unknown origin and poor quality has recurred in some localities such as Yen Lac, Lap Thach, Vinh Tuong...

Free travel, promotional gifts and “drawing up” incentive and gratitude programs are just disguised forms to entice people to buy. These are not new tricks and tactics, but many people still fall into the trap because they are gullible.

In particular, it is worth noting that when companies organize free tours, they mostly target the elderly, pensioners, idle middle-aged people... Because these people often have health problems with many underlying diseases, have savings for retirement, so they have the ability to buy goods.

At the same time, this group is not proficient in information technology, some people do not even use smartphones, so searching and updating information is limited. In addition, many elderly people have children working far away, often stay home alone, leading to boredom, like to socialize, go here and there to change the atmosphere, so when invited to go out for free, they easily agree.

In the past, scammers often rented halls of village cultural houses and residential groups and invited people to attend seminars to organize sales of poor quality products and then run away, but now they have changed their methods with more sophisticated tricks.

In this, in many different ways, they will attract people out of their locality to another location to organize a sales seminar, essentially just changing the location of the seminar from one place to another.

Furthermore, these types of disguised sales seminars, disguised as free tours, are often held in restaurants and hotels, so they can easily bypass local authorities.

The consequences of buying poor quality products at sky-high prices are not only a waste of money but can also affect people's health when using unverified products, even counterfeit products.

As the tourist season approaches, many bad guys will create different scenarios to attract and entice people to participate in free travel programs disguised as selling poor quality goods, especially by borrowing the name of associations and organizations to make offers.

Therefore, authorities recommend that people need to be vigilant and should not arbitrarily participate in gratitude programs, promotions, or free travel when these activities do not have the consent of state management agencies.

At the same time, when detecting signs of fraud, it is necessary to immediately report to the nearest authorities or consult relatives or experts before spending money to buy any product to avoid being taken advantage of.

Article and photos: Thai Quynh

Source: http://baovinhphuc.com.vn/Multimedia/Images/Id/128145/Chieu-tro-cu-nan-nhan-moi