Vietnam on scam alert
Vietnam's state-controlled media has run several articles suggesting an official campaign to stamp out the scams that are rife in the country, or at least make people more aware of them.
Counterfeiting, piracy and smuggling are all common in Vietnam, and there are many people who are willing to take an easy chance to make money or to take home a bargain.
The latest scam to get attention is the simple art of making fake bus tickets. Real tickets are photocopied and sold.
The Hanoi Transport Company has put security guards on the city's buses. Many of them are martial arts experts or ex-commandos which seems to raise the stakes of trying to trick the ticket collector.
Risky too is the metals business. A man who used cow fat and paint to pass off a lump of iron as bronze was himself tricked. The buyers paid him, but with counterfeit notes.
Another scam which has re-emerged this week involves swindlers who try to attract investors into buying chemicals to clean what they say are disguised United States dollars.
The investors are told they will double their money, but in fact the dollars are fake.
Two other recent cases involve fake people - a man who allegedly posed as a journalist for seven years to collect gifts and money, and another who posed as a former military commander who could help set up business deals.
This week police arrested a trade official who had been selling rubber stamps containing official signatures and university degrees.
He had reportedly been sacked from another job for incompetence. He had been a policeman.
By Clare Arthurs - BBC News - July 25, 2003.
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