🚨 Warning corner: Don’t find out at the new airport that you’re the one whose name the company is registered under!

Today, the brand ambassador of Làng Wine, Phạm Tiến Tiếp, was supposed to fly to Singapore to kick off Vietnam’s culinary month at KS The Grand Copthorne. But Tiếp couldn’t get an exit permit.

The reason sounds incredibly hard to believe: someone used Tiếp’s citizen ID card to register 2 companies that Tiếp had absolutely no knowledge of. One of the two companies is reportedly owing about 9 million VND in taxes.

Tiếp doesn’t know. Not established. Not operating. But on the system… Tiếp’s name is still listed there.

The last time Tiếp checked on eTax was in July for company tax finalization. Back then, there was no issue. After that, we were also careless and didn’t check again before going.

I only found out at the airport. 🥲

I posted to seek help and only then discovered that a lot of people are facing the same kind of situation.

I have a friend. Her husband has been stuck with this since 2024. Up to now, it still hasn’t been fully resolved. She even has to hire a lawyer and work with many different places.

The hard part is: if my company truly owes taxes, then the story is relatively simple—handle the tax amount and then proceed with the related procedures.

But if I’ve never formed that company myself, yet someone else uses my ID card to register it, then it’s a completely different matter. According to the police instructions:

Step 1: Go to eTax to submit a complaint, and tell the tax office: “I’m not the owner of this company.”

Then work with the business registration side.

Then all the parties have to verify and cross-check with each other.

And no one knows when it will be finished.

I really find this extremely unfair.

An ordinary person who did nothing wrong suddenly has their ID card used to register a company. Then that company has problems, and the victim themselves has to run around everywhere to prove: I’m not the owner of this company!

So I really want to ask: in the end, who is responsible for handling these cases?

With the tax office?

The police?

Business registration authority?

Or does it have to involve some coordination mechanism between the parties?

I think this isn’t just an issue for Tiếp. If Tiếp hadn’t run into this today, maybe I wouldn’t have known that many people are dealing with the same thing.

Next week, Làng has an event in Singapore with The Grand Copthorne to kick off Vietnamese Food Month. Làng’s cocktail will still be there, but unfortunately BA Phạm Tiến Tiếp can’t make it. Tiếp was supposed to go to perform the global award-winning Phở cocktail and interact with everyone, but oh well—let’s schedule it for another time instead. 😢

I share this story to raise awareness, and I also hope that the relevant agencies can review how they handle cases where identities are stolen to register businesses. It can’t be that the scam victim has to lose months, even years, proving that “that company isn’t mine.”

If you’re reading this, please go check on eTax.

And if anyone has encountered a similar situation, please comment and help me out. I want to know how everyone handled it and finally which agency was able to resolve it. Maybe it can help someone else too, so they don’t have to find out only after getting to the airport.