Warning on work scams HANOI - Vietnamese authorities have sentenced a fraudulent employment agent to life in prison and are warning the country's increasing numbers of unemployed to be wary of lucrative offers to work overseas. In what is believed to be the harshest sentence handed down so far in a growing number of cases involving overseas employment scams, Hanoi's People's Court jailed Dao Van Son, 64, after convicting him of stealing nearly 850 million dong (HK$470,600). According to yesterday's People's Police newspaper, the court heard Son had deceived 100 people into paying for access to non-existent jobs in Taiwan, Japan, South Korea and Germany. The newspaper reported that Son had been convicted of forgery and fraud on three previous occasions. He used the name and official seals of a recently dissolved state enterprise which he once headed to legitimise the deception. Court and Ministry of Labour officials declined yesterday to comment on the case. But recent Vietnamese media reports have highlighted similar stings. Vietnam's stagnating economy saw national unemployment jump to 7.4 per cent last year, from 6.8 per cent in 1998, and an additional one million job-seekers are forecast to enter the employment market this year. Government agencies have announced plans to create more than half a million jobs in a year and Hanoi is to lift the number of Vietnamese allowed to work overseas to 25,000, from 20,000 in 1999. By Huw Watkin - South Morning China Post - February 15, 2000.