Unexpected developments appear

On the afternoon of August 28, a representative of a group of parents (currently numbering more than 700) said they were sending mass emails to the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines and the Philippine police agency asking for support, after the online English center named Aya e-Academy in the Philippines collected billions of dong but suddenly closed.

The list updated this afternoon by parents shows that the amount of money paid up to more than 1.1 billion VND was transferred to 3 bank accounts opened in Vietnam. From there, these 3 bank accounts continued to transfer to the operator of the Aya e-Academy English center.

According to the content of the petition sent to the police agency in the Philippines requesting urgent assistance, parents said that there is a scam targeting Vietnamese students who want to learn English online (1 on 1). This English center is run by a woman named ME, (usually called Aya), who continuously invites students in Vietnam to pay money with advertisements of discounts, promotions...

The list of parents who have transferred more than 1.1 billion VND to Aya e-Academy as of noon on August 28th, but have not yet started studying, the school has been announced to be closed. It is worth mentioning that this is the list of a group of parents...

After parents had transferred more than 1 billion VND, the center suddenly announced its closure, causing many people to panic. Ms. H. Thao, a parent, said that she had transferred a total of 20 million VND to register her children for courses and had not attended a single class. Many other parents also transferred an average of 2.5 million VND to 5 million VND to register their children for online English classes.

A development related to the incident is that not only the parents have paid but also the teachers at this Aya e-Academy center have not been paid since the beginning of August. However, after a series of Vietnamese parents formed a group on social networks, reported to the Philippine authorities and discussed with the teachers, as well as Aya e-Academy, this center took action to pay salaries from August 1 to August 15 to a number of teachers.

One group of parents alone has grown to more than 700 people, screenshot as of the afternoon of August 28

"I have no intention of running away. Please allow me to send the refunds slowly little by little until I finish everything. Please give me time to pay all the teachers. After I send all their salaries, I will start to refund you slowly..." - a message from Aya e-Academy sent to some parents on the afternoon of August 28.

However, speaking to reporters from the Lao Dong Newspaper, many parents said they would continue to send complaints and reports to the Vietnamese Embassy in the Philippines, as well as email the police agency of this country to request clarification on whether the case was a scam or not?

What did the recipient of the money transfer to Aya e-Academy say?

Speaking to reporters, Ms. TTHN, one of the three accounts receiving money transfers for Aya e-Academy, confirmed that she had nothing to do with the operation of this center. According to Ms. N., about 3 years ago she started buying online English courses from the above center. After a period of trust, she hired Aya to provide 1-1 online English teachers for her foreign language center in Vietnam.

"I am the one who pays Ms. Aya to hire 1-1 online teachers for students. After about 2 years, she has provided a stable source of teachers and I also continue to pay for new courses for my children.

After that, Ms. Aya asked me to receive the money on her behalf, because some parents did not know where to send it and her source of money was broken. And every month, I still send her money to pay for teachers to teach students in online classes, so I only accepted the transfer but also made it clear that it was not related to the Aya e-Academy course.

At the end of August, when the center closed, I was very shocked and joined the group of parents demanding their rights," said Ms. HN.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/vu-hon-600-phu-huynh-to-trung-tam-tieng-anh-truc-tuyen-xuat-hien-dien-bien-bat-ngo-19624082815090563.htm