In the first month of becoming a student, Khong Thi Thuong, from Hanoi Medical College, was scammed out of 1 million VND because she believed in posts on Facebook groups about finding cheap rooms.

Cheap room scam

In early September 2023, after knowing the admission results, Thuong went to Hanoi to look for a place to rent. While browsing Facebook, the female student saw a post on the group "Finding a place to rent in Thanh Liet, Hoang Mai, Kim Giang, Hanoi" with a fairly cheap room rental price of 1.8 million VND/month, suitable for her budget.

Thuong proactively texted the poster - an account named Thuy Tam - and received enthusiastic advice from this person, sending videos, room photos and clearly stating all the prices of the accompanying services.

Thuong suggested that she come see the room in person before making a deposit, but this person did not give her permission and instead asked for her phone number for more specific advice, while urging her, "If you don't make a deposit quickly, there won't be any rooms left. Many people are asking."

Because she had previously had a hard time finding a place to stay near the school and was not satisfied, Thuong decided to pay a deposit. After successfully transferring the money, the female student was immediately blocked by this person and could not send messages. Despite trying to call back, she still could not contact him.

"When I found out I was scammed, I didn't dare talk to my parents and had to accept losing the money. This is the first lesson in my life because I trusted people too much and lost money," Thuong said sadly. Thuong is currently staying at a friend's room until she finds a suitable place to live.

Lam Hoang Long, a first-year student at the Academy of Journalism and Communication, also lost money. On his first day of college, Long lived with two friends but found that the schedule and lifestyle did not suit him, so he decided to move out and live alone.

He went to many places but could not find a satisfactory room. Cheap rooms were too small, shared bathrooms, and large rooms were too expensive. He decided to go to a brokerage company on Thai Thinh Street, Dong Da for help. The brokerage company's staff asked for a fee of 500,000 VND and would provide information about rooms and addresses for his reference.

After paying the deposit, Long went to 4-5 rooms at the address provided but was informed by the landlord that all rooms were full or there were no rooms available for rent. He called the company and was provided with 3 more rooms, but when he called the landlord, he could not get in touch.

Having to run back and forth to many places but with no results, Long returned to the company to report, but they said their responsibility was over, only providing "whether or not they found anything depends on luck". "I didn't dare to make a big deal out of it, so I had to leave without getting any results", Long shared resentfully.

Easy job high salary scam

In addition to room rental groups, there are many job search groups. This is also a place that easily makes first-year students fall into a state of delusion because it is easy to find easy work with high salary.

Dinh Minh Hau, a first-year student at Hanoi College of Electronics and Refrigeration, just lost 1 million VND because he believed in recruitment posts online.

Hau's family is poor, so right from the time he started school, he went to Facebook groups to look for part-time jobs. He accessed the group "Searching for part-time jobs in Hanoi" and saw many high-paying jobs that fit his schedule, so he was quite interested.

Asking more about the job, Hau found that he met all the requirements here, but this company required him to pay in advance for things like: uniform fees, application fees, health check fees... the total advance payment was nearly 1 million VND.

Because the salary was high, the working hours were suitable, and there was no restriction, Hau paid without any doubts. After paying, they made an appointment to come to the company's address the next day for an interview.

The next day, when he went to the company's address for an interview, he discovered that the place was just a small alley with only residential houses. Hau asked the neighbors and learned that there had never been a company in the area before.

Panicking, he quickly opened his phone to find the chat with the previous recruiter but found that all messages had been deleted without a trace, and he could not contact them by phone. The male student was stunned when he realized he had been scammed. "I heard a lot about online scams but I never thought that one day I would become a victim," Hau said.

Ms. Nguyen Thi Thuy Mai, Deputy Head of the Faculty of Sociology and Development, Academy of Journalism and Communication, said that currently, new students or even 2nd and 3rd year students are facing very sophisticated scams.

She has seen students complain about losing money due to scams on social networks. This affects the finances of students in difficult circumstances, causing confusion, anxiety, and instability, especially for new students.

Some of the reasons leading to the above situation are that students lack skills, they are less proactive in researching deeply and thinking about the problem in the direction of the nature of the matter, so when receiving information, they are easily drawn into exaggerated information (easy jobs, high salaries or advertisements from employers, cheap but good quality buying and selling and renting sites...)

She offers some solutions for students to limit the above situation. When students look for part-time jobs, they need to find a reputable brokerage center, carefully research the position, job content, terms of the contract, etc. before applying.

"Students need to equip themselves with knowledge and skills such as finding information, knowing how to exploit and understand the nature of things, because no job is easy and easy to succeed. To avoid falling into scams, when buying or renting a house, you need to learn through reliable channels, go to the place to find out and then make a decision...", Ms. Mai said.

Khanh Son