In early July, Phan Huy, a student in Ho Chi Minh City, saw a fanpage named "SJC Ho Chi Minh" promoting a program celebrating SJC's 38th anniversary. The promotion offered one phan of gold to the first 100 online customers. He left his information via Messenger.

An account, claiming to be an SJC employee, informed him that the program was valid for a short period. Due to continuous fluctuations in gold prices, customers were required to transfer 50-100 percent of the order's value upfront to secure the price, then collect the gold at the store.

The account also sent an image of a payment QR code displayed at an SJC transaction counter. The scammer messaged Huy, "Please make an early payment to lock in the price at the time of your order, as gold prices change constantly according to the listed rates."

"I had no hesitation whatsoever because the fanpage had a blue verification badge, SJC e-invoices, and even images of a QR code at the store, so I just transferred the money," Huy recounted.

After transferring over 30 million dong, Huy received no response from the fanpage. It was only when he directly visited an SJC store on Nguyen Thi Minh Khai street in Ban Co ward that he realized he had been scammed.

Upon reviewing the transfer transaction, Huy noticed that the recipient account, "Cong ty TNHH DTPT MNTBL SJC VN", bore a name similar to the official "Cong ty TNHH MTV Vang Bac Da Quy Sai Gon (SJC)".

An employee of SJC told VnExpress that in recent days, they have received numerous reports from customers who fell victim to similar scams, with some cases involving transfers of hundreds of millions of dong.

Fake SJC fanpages frequently post gold prices and promotional programs to lure customers into online scams. *Quynh Trang*

SJC confirmed that its official Facebook fanpage was deactivated earlier this year. Exploiting this, many fanpages, such as "SJC Ho Chi Minh" and "SJC Ha Noi", were created. These pages use the company's name, logo, and images to post gold prices, livestream, and promote offers to entice customers into transferring money.

SJC stated that the company currently does not operate any Facebook fanpages. Its official information channels include only the website sjc.com.vn and a Zalo Official Account.

The company advises customers not to transfer deposit payments as requested on social media. It also recommends carefully checking the account holder's name before completing any transaction.