"Falling into the trap" of studying abroad and international exchange
In the petition sent by the parents (father of student MT, Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, Ho Chi Minh City) to the police and the school, it stated: “On Friday afternoon, May 23, MT called his mother and said that he was selected by the school to go on an international student exchange in Germany and asked the family to deposit money into his account so that the account statement could be submitted to the school to complete the exchange application. And from May 26 to 28, the family transferred 7 billion VND into MT’s account. After that, the family became suspicious and asked an acquaintance working in the bank to check the balance in MT’s account and the result was that the balance in the account was gone.”
According to a representative of Pham Ngoc Thach University of Medicine, at present, the school does not implement any international study abroad or student exchange programs. Joint activities with Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz (Germany) are only for students of classes in the Vietnamese-German Faculty of Medicine.
Meanwhile, according to statistics from the University of Social Sciences and Humanities (Vietnam National University, Ho Chi Minh City), the Student Affairs Department of the school has received reports from many students who were tricked into transferring money due to threats of being involved in a case or paying for studying abroad. The school has received the information and instructed students to report to the police for handling.
NTMT student shared: “At the end of January 2025, I received a call from a person claiming to be a police officer. The person said, “You are a suspect in a money laundering case, you will be forced to drop out of school, and may even go to jail...”. After that, this person asked me to transfer money to avoid prosecution. Because I was so scared and panicked, I transferred nearly 50 million VND.”
Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education invited Thu Duc City Police to discuss with students skills to deal with fraud.
Recorded at many universities such as: FPT University, Ho Chi Minh City University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Ho Chi Minh City University of Transport, University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University), Ton Duc Thang University... from the beginning of the year until now, scammers have sent many students many notices about winning scholarships to study abroad, winning study abroad programs, meeting invitations... along with requests to prove their accounts for the purpose of fraud.
The Ministry of Education and Training has just requested Departments of Education and Training and training institutions to warn and disseminate information to students about fraudulent acts related to student exchange programs and international scholarships; and recommend that students look up information about scholarships and study abroad from official sources.
The Ministry of Education and Training is implementing a number of projects and scholarship programs using state budget to send people to study abroad, which are posted on the Ministry of Education and Training's electronic information portal at https://moet.gov.vn and the electronic information portal of the Department of International Cooperation, Ministry of Education and Training at https://icd.edu.vn.
Raise awareness
At the end of May, the Department of International Cooperation (Ministry of Education and Training) sent a document to the Departments of Education and Training and educational institutions warning about fraud related to student exchange and study abroad programs. According to the warning, recently, many forms of fraud have appeared related to student exchange programs, international summer camps, and study abroad scholarships.
Fraudsters often use sophisticated tricks such as impersonatingeducational institutions, government agencies or setting up fake websites and social media accounts to invite students to register, asking participants to provide personal information, submit applications and pay fees to steal information and appropriate assets of victims. Currently, there are citizens who have been tricked into paying fees to participate in study abroad scholarship programs of up to hundreds of millions of VND.
According to a representative of the University of Technology (Ho Chi Minh City National University), the school has recently discovered many fake messages sent to students by scammers. Therefore, the school recommends that students should be extremely alert and verify the information when receiving suspicious fraudulent information.
All procedures for registering and reviewing scholarships for students of the school are implemented in a strict system through email and the school's official electronic information channels, monitored by specialized departments and regularly updated to students. When noticing any unusual signs, students need to check and confirm information from reliable sources through the school's official information channels or directly report to the police.
According to Dr. Tran Thanh Thuong, Head of Admissions and Student Affairs (Ho Chi Minh City University of Technical Education), some common forms of fraud that students need to be especially vigilant about are: fraud of light work with high salaries (data entry, captcha typing, sales collaborators, etc.); fraud via social networks or impersonating acquaintances; financial investment fraud, virtual currency; impersonating the police, prosecutors, banks to call, send fake invitations to scare students about "involvement in the case" and request to provide personal information, transfer money for verification; offering scholarships, 0% interest tuition loans, etc.
MSc. PHAM THAI SON - Director of Admissions and Communications Center, Ho Chi Minh City University of Industry and Trade:
Identify and grasp fraud tricks
First of all, students must remember: if you do not do anything wrong, no one will accuse you of breaking the law; if you do not apply anywhere, you will definitely not get a scholarship; there is no such thing as an easy job with a high salary... At the same time, students should regularly follow information on newspapers and radio, thereby recognizing and remembering tricks and forms of fraud to be vigilant.
Currently, many students have lost money in popular scholarship program information from scammers. However, if students pay attention, they will discover suspicious points: basic errors in scholarship invitations such as the top of the invitation letter says the Ministry of Education and Training but the bottom is signed by the principal or head of department; the seal is from the Department of Education and Training of Ho Chi Minh City or another school; no school requires proof or account statement.
Information about scholarship programs or student exchange programs, academic exchanges... are currently clearly disclosed by schools on their websites and deployed to each department and faculty of the school, not sent to each student.
MSc. NGUYEN THI KIM PHUNG - Deputy Director of Admissions and Business Relations Center, University of Finance and Marketing, Ho Chi Minh City:
Principles of preventing online fraud
Students must remember the principles of preventing online fraud. Specifically, do not provide personal information to strangers; do not make friends and talk to strangers, especially accounts with beautiful and eye-catching images; do not accept invitations to join groups without a clear purpose; do not access, log in to links, websites, applications or open attachments from unknown senders or sources.
In addition, no government agency, Ministry of Public Security, prosecutor, court or financial institution will call to investigate... over the phone, requesting to provide personal information or pay money. Therefore, students should not make advance transfers, deposits, or transfer money to strangers under any circumstances; do not be greedy for assets or gifts of unknown origin...
MSc. DANG KIEN CUONG - Head of Student Affairs Department, Ho Chi Minh City University of Agriculture and Forestry:
Share to raise awareness and vigilance
Fraud on the internet through social channels is becoming more and more sophisticated and new tricks are constantly appearing. Therefore, in order to avoid falling into the trap of fraud, students need to raise awareness, always check the source of information, and not rush to believe in opportunities that seem too good, too easy.
Students need to raise awareness and knowledge about fraud by participating in courses, seminars on online safety, sharing activities and talks on topics related to legal life...
Universities and educational institutions should regularly organize courses and seminars on how to identify and avoid fraud. On the other hand, when verifying that it is fraudulent information, each student should share it widely to help spread and raise awareness for the student community and society.
THANH HUNG
Source: https://www.sggp.org.vn/ma-tran-lua-dao-bua-vay-sinh-vien-post799256.html
Comment (0)