New scam tricks at 'underground' beauty salons

thẩm mỹ - Ảnh 1. — Inside the "underground" cosmetic facility that hires students to perform liposuction surgery on customers - Photo: Ho Chi Minh City Police

The Ho Chi Minh City Police Department has exchanged some information surrounding the case of "deceiving customers" that occurred at the unlicensed beauty salon Ho.pital SW (address 49B Cao Thang, Ban Co ward, Ho Chi Minh City).

This agency also discovered that the Ho.pital SW facility owned by Nguyen Thi Huong (32 years old, Go Vap ward, Ho Chi Minh City) was operating illegally.

Use 30 fanpages to attract customers

According to the investigation agency, the above facility specializes in liposuction and filler injection. Although it has been handled many times and requested to stop operations, the owner of the facility still defies the law and continues to operate in a sophisticated manner.

Lieutenant Tran Hong Quan, an officer of Team 4 of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department's Investigation Police Department, said that the facility only accepts customers via social media, not directly. The outside of the facility is almost always closed, only opening when welcoming customers, making the process of approaching and investigating difficult.

"The subjects prey on the tastes of customers who want liposuction and cheap cosmetic surgery, and often do not want to disclose information, so the investigation process also has difficulty in collecting information about the victims," said Mr. Quan.

According to Lieutenant Colonel Nguyen Luong Y - investigator of the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department's Investigation Agency, the defendants bought fanpages with a large number of interactions, then changed their names to fanpages of famous plastic surgeons to impersonate these doctors to advertise their cosmetic surgery activities. The investigation results so far have identified about 30 fake fanpages used by the defendants to attract customers.

Advertising posts are mainly copied from advertising posts of reputable cosmetic facilities, edited, and then posted on their fanpage.

"Through investigation, we discovered a new trick, the subjects staged and created videos about liposuction surgery by pureeing pumpkin and papaya to create fake fat, using this fake fat to film advertising clips about liposuction activities. In reality, it was all staged, there were no real people doing real things.

The advertisement makes many people believe and seek liposuction.

It is worth mentioning that this facility hires medical interns who do not have a certificate to practice cosmetic surgery to directly perform liposuction on customers, which is a prohibited practice in the medical field," said Mr. Y.

According to Mr. Y, the verification results determined that all medical supplies at the facility had no proven origin, posing a high risk of causing complications and medical accidents for customers.

"Play the role" of a famous doctor performing surgery

These violations have been exposed by the police. Previously, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Investigation Agency initiated a case, prosecuted the accused, and temporarily detained Nguyen Thi Huong, Nguyen Minh Khai, and Duong Tan Long (marketing staff at Ho.pital SW) to investigate the crime of defrauding customers.

Although not granted a license to practice medicine and cosmetic surgery, Huong still directed her employees to perform liposuction services from January 2025 to present for more than 500 customers, illegally profiting nearly 10 billion VND.

Meanwhile, Nguyen Minh Khai (32 years old, residing in Tan Son Nhat ward, Ho Chi Minh City), the person who directly performed liposuction, admitted that he was only in the process of studying and practicing to get a certificate to practice aesthetics.

Khai was hired by Ms. Huong to perform liposuctions since April and for each liposuction, Khai was paid 8% (equivalent to about 800,000 VND).

While working for Ms. Huong, Khai "played the role" of a famous cosmetic surgeon named Long and was advertised as "head of Cho Ray Hospital", "director of Asia Hospital"... to attract customers.

And even when on the liposuction table, many customers still believe that the person wearing the mask is a real doctor, not realizing that it is a fake "Doctor Long".

Liposuction advertising is rampant, mixed with truth and falsehood

Just a few searches for the keywords "liposuction" and "fast weight loss" on social networks, hundreds of fan pages and groups will appear with all kinds of "winged" advertisements: painless liposuction, no scarring, price is only a small fraction of the hospital. Illustrative images are often spectacular "transformations" before and after surgery.

Reality has proven that many of these clips are staged to deceive viewers. Many pages even impersonate famous doctors, using images and logos of major hospitals to create trust for customers.

These ads often hit the psychology of people who want to lose fat quickly, at low cost and keep personal information confidential.

Just leave your phone number or send a direct message, and you will immediately be offered a series of "huge promotional" service packages by a consultant. Many beauty groups have also become places to share and attach links to unlicensed establishments, making it difficult for users to distinguish between real and fake.

DAN THUAN - HUYNH ANH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/thu-doan-lua-moi-o-co-so-tham-my-chui-20250909222906214.htm