A female passenger was assaulted by the driver and assistant of a vehicle disguising itself as a public bus as she was attempting to take a photo of its license plate, apparently to capture evidence of the scam.

The incident took place in the north-central province of Ha Tinh on Monday, when Vo Thi Hoai was among more than a dozen passengers on the ‘fake bus’ that ran carelessly through Cam Xuyen District, she said in a complaint to the provincial police on Tuesday.

Shortly after boarding what she thought was a normal public bus, Hoai was terrified to see the vehicle zigzaging at high speed amidst traffic.

There were around 15 passengers aboard, all of whom shared the same feeling and asked the driver to steer the bus slowly.

“But he reacted with threats of a physical attack,” Hoai wrote in her report to police officers.

Hoai then left the vehicle and was about to take a picture of its license plate with her mobile phone when the driver and his attendant rushed in to hit her, she recalled.

A local police chief said the driver, Phan Van Linh, had been fined multiple times for running a red light, failing to present a driver’s license, and pulling over at undesignated locations.

Linh is known to disguise his vehicle as a public bus, according to officers.

On Tuesday, a team of patrol police in Cam Xuyen District caught the scam bus as it was picking up and dropping off passengers on Xuan Dieu Street and booked the case.

Linh was fined for driving on a wrong road and failing to present a driver’s license, while his vehicle was seized for further investigation.

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