Mr. NVA (Long Bien district, Hanoi) has two children studying at the Vinschool education system. He was shocked when the money paid for his children's tuition through a third party "evaporated" and did not enter the school system.
According to this parent, in May 2023, the Facebook account LP (real name PTL) posted information in the Vinschool parent group with the content "pay tuition via VinID loyalty card, receive high tuition discount". This group currently has about more than 300,000 members, mainly parents with children studying at Vinschool nationwide.
To create trust, this person also affirmed that after the school sent an email confirming full tuition collection, parents would need to pay the remaining amount.
"On May 29, I transferred to LP the amount of 151,808,709 VND in preschool tuition and was refunded 1.5% (about 2.5 million VND - PV). With complete trust, I continued to ask this person to pay the tuition for my older child who is studying at primary school with the amount of 138,185,064 VND", he said and informed that after the successful transfer, the family did not receive an email notification from the school, nor did they receive the promised 3% refund. He anxiously contacted L. and received a firm reply that "the accountant is working".
By the afternoon of July 4, Mr. A was shocked because he could no longer contact his PTL account.
The "pay tuition on behalf of, get refund" scam has trapped many parents, who are willing to transfer hundreds of millions of dong to a third party. (Photo: PHCC)
Also a victim of this scam, Ms. TL (Binh Thanh District, Ho Chi Minh City) has two children studying at Vinschool. She said that at first she did not believe in getting a refund, but after seeing many parents successfully transacting, she believed and followed suit.
" There are two forms of payment: bank transfer or meeting in person to swipe the card. To receive a 4% discount, parents must deposit 20% of the total tuition fee in advance. After receiving a confirmation email from the school, the remaining amount must be transferred," said Ms. TL.
On June 20, Ms. TL transferred a deposit of 20% of the tuition fee - equivalent to 44 million VND - to PTL's account. Then, on July 1, she continued to pay more than 144 million VND. In addition, this parent also paid a "registration fee" of 10 million VND.
Things got worse when Ms. TL checked the information and found that the remaining amount for bus fare was 20 million VND/student, totaling 40 million VND. "I questioned the school about this fee and was told that the school was processing it and would have a receipt soon. Now I know I was scammed out of 50 million VND ," she said.
Attractive discount levels "entice" parents to fall for the scam. (Photo: PHCC)
The Vinschool education system immediately issued a warning about fraud to trick parents into paying tuition fees. In an email to parents, the school wrote: "Currently, on social networks, there are many information pages and accounts impersonating Vinschool to scam tuition fees, collect summer tuition fees with many preferential forms such as % discount on regular tuition fees or summer tuition discounts" .
The school also includes official account information for parents to contact to avoid being scammed.
Currently, a group of parents who were scammed by the "pay tuition and get a refund" scam are gathering documents and evidence to report to the authorities.
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