Many foreigners have been coordinating with Vietnamese to conduct online scams through Facebook by convincing their victims to send money in order to receive presents from overseas.

Le Tuan Binh, a customs official at Tan Son Nhat International Airport in Ho Chi Minh City, affirmed that the customs office has received multiple requests from police to clarify information related to the illegal schemes.

Typically, the scams begin when the perpetrator befriends naïve targets on social networks, stating that they are accomplished individuals in other countries.

After gaining trust and friendship from their victims, the scammer offers to send presents from overseas which could only be handed to the targets if they pay mandatory ‘fees’ to customs officers. 

Unbeknownst to the victims, the customs officers are accomplices in disguise.

Following several working sessions with competent authorities, Binh asserted that the scams are conducted by foreigners colluding with Vietnamese individuals who take advantage of people’s trust and greed.

In a case in point, N.T.V., residing in the northern province of Phu Tho, began exchanging messages with a Facebook user by the name of Coglan Tevlev in July 2015.

Four days later, Tevlev said he would give V. several gifts, including a cellphone, gold, and accessories, which would be transported by air.

Two days afterwards, a woman named Dung, claiming to be an employee at Tan Son Nhat International Airport, contacted the victim, stating that V. need to wire VND18 million (US$802) to a designated bank account as customs clearance for her presents.

After V. caught the bait, Dung continued asking for another VND77 million ($3,432) due to several 'exceptions' of her gifts, threatening that all the assets shall be put into the national budget if V. did not pay.

The scammer succeeded in the second attempt and then contacted V. for the third time, requesting an additional VND120 million ($5,349). The woman later realized she was conned.

The woman unsuccessfully tried to contact both Dung and Tevlev to demand her money back, resulting in V. filing a report with the Phu Tho Department of Police.

In another case, N.T.H.Y. from the northern province of Ha Nam, became friends with a man name Kevin Blake on Facebook in 2015. Blake quickly said he had a present for Y. from Alaska.

A few days later, a woman with the name Duong Thi Le, informed Y. on the phone that her foreign present had been spotted with an undeclared amount of GBP45,000 ($64,905).

The victim was talked into paying a total amount of VND574 million ($25,588) and never received her ‘gift’.

Cases of similar scams conduced both online and through the phone have been reported, all without the conmen’s identity.

According to Binh, the customs office at the Tan Son Nhat airport does not require citizens to pay their customs clearance through emails or phone calls.

If the recipient does not receive their packages at the airport, the assets will be stored in the venue’s inventory, the official said.

“It was just a ploy conducted by the con artists in order to trick their victims,” he said.