During the recent gold price “fever,” with expectations of turning small contributions into substantial gains as advertised online, many people turned to online gold accumulation apps, requiring only a deposit of 100,000 VND to gradually own a large amount of gold.
However, after news of the CEO’s arrest, a wave of customers felt like they were “sitting on fire” because the withdrawal function for money and assets on the HanaGold online gold accumulation app had been locked for nearly a month.
Spending real money to buy virtual gold… on an app
According to reports, in recent days, a large number of HanaGold gold buyers have been “crying for help” in various groups. Most victims fell into the trap due to advertisements that precisely targeted the psychology of young customers, office workers, and laborers—those with modest incomes who still wanted to accumulate gold for their future.
“Not everyone can afford to buy gold right now(…). What about young working people, workers, or office employees… who save 500,000 to 1 million VND per month, or at most 3 million VND? To buy gold, you have to save up enough money, but by the time you do, you’ve spent it. Or worse, when you finally have enough, the gold price has already risen sharply. But it’s okay, there is now a solution for you!”
This was the enticing introduction in a TikTok video that attracted nearly 40,000 views, promoting the HanaGold app. According to it, HanaGold was advertised to help people accumulate gold in a modern way. Just deposit 100,000 VND, and the online account would be converted into the gold value at that time and stored.
Once accumulated to 1 tael of gold or more, customers could go to receive physical gold at linked gold dealers nationwide. “I am a salaried employee. I joined the HanaGold app to accumulate gold and silver as a form of long-term asset savings,” a reader named Uyen Mai reported.
Ms. K., an investor, said she used the money she had saved over 10 years to buy gold on the HanaGold app, hoping to accumulate it for her children in the future. When the incident occurred, her family was very disappointed and worried that they could not recover the hard-earned money they had invested.
Ms. Ta Thi Thu Phuong (Ho Chi Minh City) said she was very worried because she “can no longer withdraw money.” Once considered an optimal solution for the future, Mr. Quoc Bao, another customer of the online gold accumulation app, said he had to scrimp and save every penny to build a home, support his children’s education, and prepare for old age.
“When I heard this app allowed accumulation from very small amounts, which suited the budget of workers like me, I joined and put money in, but who would have thought…”, Mr. Bao said angrily. Ms. Thu Hang (Lao Cai) said that the money she had accumulated for so long was suddenly out of control.
“The fact that an app once honored with many awards and heavily promoted has now stopped withdrawal functions makes us very worried,” Ms. Hang said.
Is it possible to get the money back?
According to documents obtained, customers participating in this online app come from all over the country, with some accumulating a few million VND and others depositing billions of VND in total.
Amid the gold fever that has lasted for several years, with limited gold supply and long queues to buy gold,
