On the afternoon of 12/1, a representative from Hoan Kiem Ward Police stated that Ms. Nguyen Thi Thu, a street vendor in the Old Quarter, was invited for questioning following public complaints about overcharging foreign customers for hats.

Ms. Thu confessed to selling a conical hat for 250,000 VND to a foreign female customer around 4 PM on 11/1, in front of 56 Hang Gai street. A local shop owner witnessed the event, informed the tourist she was "overcharged", and asked Ms. Thu to lower the price. Ms. Thu then reduced the price to 150,000 VND, but the customer disagreed, so the money was returned.

At the police station, Ms. Thu admitted her act of overcharging negatively impacted Vietnam's tourism image and apologized to those involved.

Hoan Kiem Ward Police fined Ms. Thu 225,000 VND for selling small goods on the sidewalk, as per regulations.

Nguyen Van Duy, a spa owner on Hang Gai street, witnessed the incident and reported it to authorities. He said he was watching his surveillance camera in front of his spa when he noticed two foreign customers appearing to argue with a street vendor over prices.

Reviewing the camera footage, he saw the two customers offer two 500,000 VND notes to the vendor for one conical hat but only received 150,000 VND in change. This prompted him to confront her. The vendor maintained that the two tourists had only given 500,000 VND, and that 150,000 VND in change was accurate.

However, upon realizing she was being recorded by camera, the vendor agreed to take back two conical hats and fully refund one million VND to the two foreign customers. The two tourists repeatedly thanked Mr. Duy for his help.

"I've worked in tourism in the Old Quarter for 20 years, so I couldn't ignore this", he said, adding that overcharging of tourists by street vendors frequently occurs in the area. According to him, conical hats in the Old Quarter typically cost around 70,000 VND each, or about 40,000 VND if you know where to buy them.

This is not the first instance of domestic and international tourists being overcharged in Hanoi's Old Quarter. In 7/2025, a group of Philippines tourists was overcharged nearly 1,4 million VND by a taxi driver in Hanoi for a distance of less than one kilometer. This incident also occurred in Hoan Kiem ward. In 9/2025, an Australia family was charged 1,2 million VND for a cyclo ride, three times the regulated price.

Tu Nguyen