Two men falsely claimed to be reporters from HCMC Television (HTV) and Lao Dong newspaper to persuade a lottery ticket seller to pay VND18 million (US$860) for an article about her returning winning lottery tickets to a frequent customer who had bought them on credit.
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The lottery seller, Pham Thi Lanh, 29, in Dong Thap Province, who last November returned 10 winning lottery tickets worth $314,000, to Do Ngoc Tuan, 41, a tricycle goods carrier, told Tuoi Tre that she had paid the two “reporters” VND9 million out of the VND18 million charge for an article about her good deed.
The rest was paid by Tuan, who had introduced the two “reporters” to her.
“Several days before this past Tet ( Lunar New Year), which fell on January 23, while I was hawking lottery tickets, two men came to see me and said they wanted to write an article for the “good people, good deeds” category of the Tet edition of the HVT magazine to feature my returning the tickets to Tuan,” Lanh said.
The two men called themselves as Bui Ngoc Dat, a reporter of the HTV, and Lu Nguyen, another reporter from Lao Dong newspaper, and showed Lanh their business cards as evidence, she said.
They then talked at a café and Dat and Nguyen showed Lanh a quotation ranging from VND6 million to VND40 million. They said her story would be published on the cover if she agreed to pay VND18 million.
Lanh consulted with Tuan before she agreed to the deal, which was effected by a contract that was signed by Tuan on behalf of Lanh.
Some of Lanh’s relatives later disagreed with such a deal, so Lanh called Dat requesting that he cancel the contract, but Dat said this was impossible since everything related to the deal had been completed.
Lanh called Tuan and the man said he would have to pay compensation to HTV if he unilaterally canceled the deal.
After the article was published, the two men met Tuan who later paid them VND9 million. They asked Tuan to give them Lanh’s address but Tuan refused.
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Lottery ticket seller Pham Thi Lanh, who lives in Long Khanh A Commune, Hong Ngu District, Dong Thap Province (Photo: Tuoi Tre)
Talking with Tuoi Tre yesterday, Tieu Ngoc Thoai, deputy head of the Long Khanh A Commune, Hong Ngu District, where Lanh lives, said Dat and Nguyen came to meet him on January 14 and had him take them to Lanh’s house.
After Thoai left Lanh’s house, Dat and Nguyen asked Lanh to pay the remaining VND9 million according to the contract.
“I wanted to comply with the contract, so I paid them the money. They said they would use the money for charity in Ho Chi Minh City,” Lanh said.
A few days later, Lao Dong newspaper staff came to the commune, where they confirmed for Lanh that the newspaper had no reporter named Lu Nguyen. They told Lanh that they were very sorry that somebody had posed as their newspaper’s reporters in order to cheat her.
Tuoi Tre later read a report from Nguyen, in which he confessed he had pretended to be a Lao Dong newspaper reporter in order to make contact with Lanh and Tuan to write an article.
He said he had printed business cards to show he was a reporter for the newspaper, but he claimed that he had not been involved in receiving the amount of VND18 million.
Nguyen is now a freelance writer for Moi Truong Do Thi Vienam (Vietnam Urban Environment) magazine.
Yesterday, the HTV management told Tuoi Tre that Dat was not a staff member of the agency, but was the director of the Thanh Dat Telecommunication Company in Tan Phu District, HCMC.
Dat had subscribed a page of the Tet edition of the HTV magazine and then wrote the article about Lanh to post on the page.
HTV asserted that it had not assigned any reporter to write an article about Lanh.
HTV said Dat had admitted that he printed false business cards and had falsely posed as a HTV reporter to make contact Lanh and Tuan.
Tuoi Tre later failed to reach Dat through his mobile phone or his company’s phone.
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