As her company lost orders and continued to lay off employees, Tran Thi Lan, a garment worker in HCMC, turned to the Internet to look for work.
She initially didn’t plan to work abroad, but then she started receiving seasonal job offers in South Korea.
She says: “The advertisements are very attractive. For example, you can earn between 40 and 45 million VND ($1,640 to $1,840) per month.
“Initially they told me I only had to deposit VND5 million and then the total cost would be VND41 million and whatever you had to pay there. That’s how it works. Doesn’t that sound tempting?
“They say it’s nine or ten months of work in South Korea. When I messaged them, someone replied and told me to take a photo of my passport and be able to go through the process online if I were far away.”
She only had to send photographs of her passport and a few other documents; there was no need for any additional qualifications or other requirements.
Thinking about the simple procedures and the small deposit of 5 million VND, she decided to try her luck.
“I thought, why not give it a try, work hard, go abroad and earn some extra income.”
After paying the deposit, the broker demanded an additional 10 million VND for “foreign worker insurance.” [the term used by the broker].
Suspecting a scam, she questioned those close to her and discovered that she had indeed been deceived.
“Just a day after I deposited VND5 million, they called me and told me I had to pay another VND10 million for insurance.
“They pushed me and told me they would give me back the deposit within an hour of paying the insurance. I told them I didn’t have much money. They told me pushed again, telling me to take out a loan quickly. I firmly refused and asked for my deposit to be refunded. Finally they said OK.
However, immediately after the call, the account was deleted on Facebook and Zalo, a Vietnamese social media app, and she was not allowed to call that number.
Lan’s loss amounted to 5 million VND.
The person on the phone gave her an address in Hanoi and she contacted the police to give it to them. But they confirmed she was scammed.
“I was very upset. They promised me everything would be ready so I could fly to South Korea on February 18.”
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Workers wait to complete procedures to take a Korean language test in order to legally work in South Korea in 2023 in Hanoi. Photo by VnExpress/Ngoc Thanh |
Since 2022, the governments of South Korea and some Vietnamese provinces have signed agreements allowing people from the latter to work seasonally in that country under the E8 visa program.
To be eligible for the visa, applicants must be aged 30 to 55 and have no criminal record or ban on leaving Vietnam. In addition, they must have lived at least 12 months in a location with an agreement with South Korea.
So far, 14 provinces and cities have signed up.
The average cost of registering for the program is around VND20 million.
Seasonal workers are allowed to extend their stay, but not beyond eight months from the date of entry.
This program excludes businesses, which means interested workers must contact the local Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
But recently, many offers have been posted on social media by brokers claiming they can send people to work in South Korea under the E8 visa program.
They also claim that people of any age and from any location can obtain the visa.
Many further advise that guest workers be able to extend their stay and work in South Korea for years, instead of a short period as required by visa regulations.
Nguyen Manh Toan, from the northern province of Vinh Phuc, recently trusted a friend’s recommendation and lost VND70 million ($2,860) to a broker who promised to send him to South Korea for seasonal work without needing to learn Korean.
He said: “This 70 million VND was only a deposit against my disappearance. The company said the total cost was $10,000. »
When he was invited to sign the contract, it was not in a company but in a normal house.
He said there was a group of about four people there and they said they were lawyers from a firm in HCMC. They took a photo of the contract, which includes the company’s names and addresses, and gave him a copy.
His friend told him that he could work in South Korea for 10 months after signing the contract, return to Vietnam to extend the contract and work for another 10 months.
The contract stipulated that the deposit would be refunded if Toan could not leave by the end of October last year, but October passed and nothing happened.
He kept asking them and they kept assuring him but not saying when he could leave.
Trusting his friend completely, he didn’t bother to look up the E8 visa rules or even read the contract carefully.
Only six months after the promised departure date, Toan discovered that Vinh Phuc, his province, was not one of the 14 provinces registered in the E8 visa program.
“At first I was very convinced, but after learning this, I knew that there was no such category as 10 months but only five or six months at most. So I knew that I had been the victim of a scam.
“My friend went to South Korea earlier under the Ministry of Labor program. He went to work there successfully and then came back. He said he knew about this connection and thus introduced me .I thought he understood the process since he had experience, and so I believed him.”
Toan says he used to think about signing up to work in Japan on a Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs.
But he admits he is too “lazy” to put himself through Japanese lessons and training courses.
“This place [the people who scammed him] did not require learning the language; you could just go. That’s why I liked it.”
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People walk in a park in Seoul, South Korea, October 2023. Photo by VnExpress/Minh Nga |
Based on the information in the contract, Toan and some other residents of his village who had also been scammed went to the brokerage company to demand their money back, but the company denied any responsibility.
“They told us to seek advice from the representative who received the money and they said it was not responsible.”
Recently, authorities in some provinces have warned workers about scams related to seasonal work in South Korea.
The Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs of Ha Tinh province, following reports that scams were commonplace, clarified last December that it had not signed any agreement with South Korea, meaning it was not among the 14 provinces and cities that could send labor to work. there.
The Ministry of Overseas Labor has asked police in some localities to investigate some companies that collected money from workers by promising to send them to work under the E8 visa program.
Late last month, police in the southern province of Hau Giang arrested a South Korean Vietnamese woman for allegedly defrauding hundreds of people seeking jobs in South Korea and pocketing VND10.5 billion ($427,800). ).
She, too, lured people by promising them salaries of 40 to 50 million VND per month and charging them a fee of 35 million VND.
But after she failed to facilitate their travel to South Korea, the victims filed complaints with authorities.
Married to a Korean and living in South Korea for nine years now, Duong Thi Thuy, from the northern province of Quang Ninh, wanted to take her entire family with her to work.
But because she lacked knowledge about the process, procedures and professional contacts, she allowed a broker from her hometown to act on her behalf.
As the broker was a relative, she trusted the person completely.
But when none of them managed to set foot in South Korea, two years after paying the broker almost a billion VND, she realized she had been scammed.
She said, sad but wiser: “Quang Ninh province is not on the E-8 visa list but the broker still took money from my family. Since March 2022, the service has failed to send anyone to South Korea. same province and this person even has family ties to me. I had so much confidence. I never for once thought that this might be a scam.
She and other victims filed a lawsuit together.
The Ministry of Overseas Labor Management said workers should contact only the Ministry of Labor, Invalids and Social Affairs in their region and not any individual or broker if they wish to benefit from an E8 visa.
