Many shops in Vung Tau 'accuse' foreigners of cheating people out of their spare change

Người khách nước ngoài lừa đảo, lấy tiền của chị Hạnh đang bước ra khỏi quán - Ảnh chụp lại từ camera — The foreign customer who scammed and stole money from Ms. Hanh was leaving the restaurant - Photo captured from security camera.

Ms. Hanh, an employee at a beer and coffee shop on Vo Truong Toan Street, Ward 9, Vung Tau City, said she was recently scammed out of 470,000 VND by a foreigner. Specifically, at around 4:30 PM on May 23rd, a foreigner entered her shop to buy a bottle of beer for 30,000 VND and handed over a 500,000 VND banknote. She gave the customer the bottle of beer and returned 470,000 VND in change.

However, this customer started speaking a foreign language incoherently, asking to buy a different type of beer. Then he bought another bottle of beer. At this point, even though he hadn't paid for the new bottle, the customer demanded his change back.

Ms. Hanh was flustered and forgot, so she returned the money to the customer again. When she suddenly realized "something was wrong," the person had already left.

On the same day, at around 9:55 PM, the same customer defrauded a beverage shop on Trung Nhi Street, Ward 1, Vung Tau, of 463,000 VND.

The owner of the beverage shop said that initially, the customer came in asking to buy a strawberry tea and handed over a 500,000 VND banknote. While asking about the purchase, the customer pointed randomly at the menu. Then, the customer changed their mind and decided not to buy it. The staff had no choice but to return the 500,000 VND note to the customer.

Nhân viên quán trả lại tờ tiền mệnh giá 500.000 đồng cho khách nước ngoài - Ảnh cắt từ camera an ninh — Restaurant staff return a 500,000 VND banknote to a foreign customer - Image captured from security camera footage.

Nhưng sau đó đã đưa thêm tiền cho người này - Ảnh cắt từ camera an ninh — But then they gave this person more money - Screenshot from security camera.

But immediately after receiving the change, the customer expressed a change of mind and wanted to buy the item. At this point, the salesperson offered the customer nearly 500,000 VND more. However, the salesperson hadn't actually received the money from the customer, as they had already given the change back.

Besides the two cases mentioned above, in the past few days, many small business owners in Vung Tau have fallen victim to the scams and "magic tricks" of the aforementioned customer. Many have posted photos and videos on social media to denounce him.

According to the victims, this customer typically targeted shops with only one employee working there.

Some netizens shared security camera footage showing the customer was accompanied by another person, also a foreigner. While one person entered the restaurant to steal money, the other parked their motorbike outside and waited.

A foreign national has been charged with fraud involving currency exchange scams.

On the afternoon of May 26th, Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Van Luyen, Chief of the Vung Tau City Police, stated that recently, the investigative agency had prosecuted a foreign national of Iranian nationality for fraud in Vung Tau. This individual committed fraud by exchanging foreign currency for Vietnamese dong.

When informed of the aforementioned incidents by reporters, Lieutenant Colonel Luyen stated that he would direct an investigation into the fraud cases to handle them according to regulations. We have forwarded the images and videos to the leadership of the Vung Tau City Police.

One shop owner said they haven't reported the incidents to the police yet because the amount of money scammed is small. However, if all the scams are added up, the total amount would be enough to warrant criminal prosecution.