Brian Jeffrey
Hoa Phat Group (HPG) has been alerted to instances where individuals and groups have deceitfully impersonated the company to defraud people and make unlawful profits by luring them with job offers and investment opportunities.
Fakers have counterfeited documents, signatures, and seals, along with using logos, information, and brand visuals of the group to establish websites where they solicit investments.
The impostors concocted a steel manufacturing project valued at VND253 billion, urging immediate investment with enticing promises of high returns. Investors were enticed with a minimum investment of VND2 million and were assured gains of 1.32 percent within just 15 minutes.
This translated to an unusually high interest rate, yielding profits of 5.28 percent in an hour and 127 percent in a day.
Furthermore, they fabricated a labor division document from Hoa Phat, counterfeiting the signature of Hoa Phat’s president Tran Dinh Long, indicating the president’s request for stringent regulations during project execution.
Vingroup, owned by billionaire Pham Nhat Vuong, has also been exploited by scammers seeking to swindle assets from unsuspecting individuals. Scammers developed websites resembling Vingroup’s official page to perpetrate their fraudulent activities.
One fake website called Vinvn.in… promised an attractive investment opportunity featuring various ‘Vingroup project funds’ spanning trade, services, healthcare, and technology sectors, each purportedly with trillions in capital, inviting investments starting at VND30 million with returns of 1.32 percent. For investments exceeding VND100 million, returns of 4.23 percent were promised after 30 minutes.
One fund created was for technology and industry development (featuring the VinFast logo) with VND6.656 trillion in capital. With a minimum investment of VND300 million, investors were promised returns of 5.56 percent within 30 minutes.
In recent years, numerous individuals posing as representatives of prominent securities firms like SSI (Saigon Securities Incorporated), VNDirect, and MBS, have made multiple daily calls, urging people to join Zalo groups for consultation on securities and international trade investment. Several individuals reported significant losses after participating in trading platforms recommended by these scammers.
Despite these fraudulent activities, Hoa Phat Group has asserted that it has not solicited investments for any projects. The company has issued warnings through official channels and partnered with authorities to address these scams.
Hoa Phat emphasized that during recruitment drives, they never request candidates to disclose personal information via phone, email, or social media platforms.
In mid-April 2024, Hanoi Police’s investigative agency pressed charges against Nguyen Thi Khuyen, CEO of Tam Loc Phat Group, for orchestrating scams and misappropriating assets by raising capital from numerous investors and guaranteeing high interest rates.
Tam Loc Phat organized multiple events featuring Vietnamese celebrities and YouTubers to attract investments. Khuyen alluringly promised high interest rates, offering substantial brokerage fees to successful recruiters and daily interest payments to investors significantly exceeding bank deposit rates.
Authorities discovered that Tam Loc Phat operated on a ‘ponzi’ scheme, using funds from new investors to pay returns to earlier investors.
Similarly, Sen Tai Thu amassed VND1 trillion in capital with promised high interest rates despite facing insolvency. Through share trading, interest rates of up to 12 percent per annum were pledged, in addition to hefty commissions to sales staff.
In November 2023, Cau Giay Police in Hanoi took legal action against Pham My Hanh, president of My Hanh Group born in 1980, for deceiving individuals and misappropriating their assets by disseminating false information about a Ngoc Linh ginseng cultivation project in various areas, amassing VND1.2 trillion from multiple individuals, and ultimately absconding with the funds.
If scammers operated within Vietnam, victims could potentially recoup a portion of their investments from the companies’ assets. However, in cases where fraud occurs online and transcends borders, victims risk losing their entire investment.
