“Scam” worth hundreds of millions VND makes T1 fans “cry out loud”
For T1 fans in Vietnam, the experience of purchasing a membership has turned into a challenging ordeal. The reasons could stem from both objective factors (the complicated payment methods while many fans are still students) or subjective factors (the price being unreasonably high compared to income levels). This situation has become a “honey pot” for malicious actors looking to exploit the community, exemplified by recent controversies among T1 fans.
According to reports, the issue began when a fangirl from T1 announced the creation of a group to share the benefits of using T1 membership. This model is similar to groups using Netflix or YouTube Premium, which have become quite common nowadays. This fangirl successfully attracted over 500 members and divided them into different groups to purchase T1 membership privileges. Moreover, she even set up a registration form and requested members to transfer money.
However, after receiving all the money, this fangirl suddenly announced that the account had been hacked and began to implement various tricks to evade the responsibility of managing the members’ rights. Additionally, according to several members, when they complained and sought help, this girl reappeared to refund some individuals to continue building trust.
Nevertheless, this person continued to “play tricks,” not allowing any further information outside of a name and a representative image (unclear if it was real or not), causing confusion and despair among the T1 fan community in Vietnam. At the same time, the total amount of money lost is reported to exceed 200 million VND.
T1 could face direct impact
In fact, the issue of scams based on the emotional investment of fans in their idols, teams or organizations is unfortunately not far away. However, it can be stated that this is one of the largest cases involving significant financial loss and the number of victims is quite high. According to updated information, the victims have reported the case to the authorities.
As for T1, they may not be too affected. However, if the situation becomes more serious and T1 receives information, there is a high possibility that this organization will tighten its management of membership rights among groups. If that happens, only T1 fans in smaller areas like Vietnam will be significantly affected.
