More than 600 parents paid billions of dong for online English lessons, but the center suddenly closed.

Reporting to Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper , a group of parents numbering more than 600 people (as of the morning of August 27) said they had transferred billions of VND in online English tuition to a center in the Philippines called Aya e-Academy but suddenly received a notice that "the center stopped operating".

Ms. Ngoc Nga (living in Ho Chi Minh City) said that through the introduction of friends whose children also study at this center, at the end of July 2024, she registered for a 1-on-1 online English course (1 teacher and 1 student) for her child with a tuition fee of 3.5 million VND. But after less than 10 sessions, the teacher suddenly announced that the center had "closed and owed the teachers' salaries".

Learning more, Ms. Nga was shocked when not only her but many parents who had paid from 2.6 million VND to 7.8 million VND to register their children for the course also received similar notice.

When contacting the representative of this center in Vietnam, parents were told that the center "temporarily stopped operating due to some legal issues of the school related to banking issues"...

Hơn 600 phụ huynh đóng cả tỉ đồng tiền học tiếng Anh trực tuyến nhưng trung tâm đột ngột đóng cửa- Ảnh 1. — The list of parents who transferred money to Aya e-Academy as of the morning of August 27 is more than 1 billion VND.

Notably, from August 25 to the morning of August 27, many parents did not know any information and continued to register for the course, transferring money to two accounts of the center's representative in Vietnam.

According to a reporter from the Lao Dong Newspaper, a group of parents created on Zalo network counted the amount of tuition that had been transferred to their bank accounts but they had not yet studied or had not studied for the full registered time, up to more than 1 billion VND.

According to many parents, they transferred tuition fees through 3 intermediaries who are Vietnamese and opened accounts at 2 commercial banks in Vietnam. Therefore, they contacted the bank to request a temporary freeze on their accounts so that these people could not transfer money to Aya e-Academy.

Hơn 600 phụ huynh đóng cả tỉ đồng tiền học tiếng Anh trực tuyến nhưng trung tâm đột ngột đóng cửa- Ảnh 2. — On August 25, the center continued to send messages to parents advertising discounted courses and calling for renewal registrations, but one day later announced that it was "temporarily suspending operations"...

However, the reporter contacted the commercial bank where the account for LVT and two other intermediaries who received tuition fees from this English center was opened, and was told that in order to freeze the account, a request from the police was required.

"Parents can file a complaint with the police. Only when requested by the authorities will the bank freeze the account of the suspect of fraud or scam," a bank representative explained.

By the morning of August 27, LVT, one of the accounts that received tuition fees and transferred money to help this English center, informed parents that he himself was a parent whose child was studying at this center. He only provided financial services and transferred money to help Aya e-Academy, taking a commission fee, and was not involved in the center's operations.

"From last night to this morning, August 27, I have refunded the accounts of any parents who transferred tuition fees to their children instead of forwarding them to Aya e-Academy. I am currently contacting the Philippine Embassy to report the incident," Mr. LVT explained.