A recent scam by some new visa agents might have put more than 1000 expats in Vietnam into problems with the Vietnamese immigration. According to reports making rounds on Facebook yesterday, a group of con artist has emerged in the city of Ho Chi Minh city to advertise about helping people with Vietnam Visa application problems without leaving the country. The suspect will ask the foreigners to send their passport and they can help them get 3-months multiple entry visa for less fees than what the real visa agents are doing it.
After a few weeks, the victims get back their passport with 3-months visa multiple entry, but the visa number is not registered or known, it is a fake stamp and signature done by this con artist to get money from their victims.
A lot of foreigners have done this Vietnam fake visa without knowing it, and only face problems while leaving the country. When their visa number is ran against the system, it turns out not to appear and some are either arrested or asked to go do a new visa.
It gets worse, other reliable visa agents that had been doing this themselves for high prices and going through the stress for their customers no longer do so again, they employ these young con artiste who will do it for cheap for them, while they extort fee from their clients, all what they believe is needed is a Vietnam visa on the passport, they have no idea all these visas were being falsified.
A vietnamese young man has been named a suspect, and his ID was shared on the popular Facebook page of expats in Saigon, but a lot of said if the young man is giving out fake visas, what cost him in using a fake ID. Though nobody knows the exact number of fake agents at the time of this report.
Expats are asking anyone in Vietnam who had done their visas from the beginning of the year to go to the immigration to fix this issue as possible as using fake visa in Vietnam is a crime.