Tabiji.ai Travel Safety Series · Book 6

Don’t lose a dollar to a “I am your Grab driver” stranger at Hanoi airport.

66 documented tourist scams across 11 Vietnamese cities and regions — drawn from Vietnamese press (Tuoi Tre, VnExpress, Thanh Nien, VietnamPlus, Vietnam News) and VNAT tourist-assistance (1800 1552) records. You’ll learn the exact scripts scammers use in Hanoi, Ho Chi Minh City, and Hoi An, the red flags that give them away, and the Vietnamese phrases that shut them down.

📖 ~282 pages paperback / ~230 Kindle 📱 Kindle eBook + paperback 🌍 11 cities & regions ⚠️ 66 scams
Buy on Amazon → $4.99 on Kindle 5.0 · 1 review
T A B I J I . A I Travel Safety Series VOLUME SIX VIETNAM Tourist Scams 66 DOCUMENTED SCAMS Don’t Lose $1,000 in Vietnam Drawn from Vietnamese press and VNAT tourist-assistance records. 11 CITIES · 2026 EDITION · BY TABIJI

Inside this book

A preview of what’s documented — scripts, red flags, and the moves that shut each scam down.

66 scams 11 cities & regions Vietnamese press & VNAT hotline records Updated annually
Excerpt · Hanoi

The Noi Bai Airport Fake-Grab Driver

You step into Noi Bai (HAN) arrivals after a long flight, and a smiling man in a polo shirt flashes a phone screen that looks exactly like the Grab app: “I am your driver — your car this way.” He walks you to a private car at the car-park exit; the fare that would have been 230,000–300,000 VND on the real app turns into 1,000,000–1,200,000 VND at the hotel door — and the driver suddenly has no change. r/VietNam has filmed the exact choreography in a 2025 thread; Grab and Be now station their own uniformed staff at the official pickup counters to cut through the noise…

Red flag: Any “Grab driver” who approaches you first inside the arrivals hall instead of waiting at the designated pickup zone.
Full scam, the plate-verification script & the exact Vietnamese exit phrase in the book.
Excerpt · Ho Chi Minh City

The Bui Vien 4-Million-VND Bar Extortion

On Bui Vien walking street, a “hostess” takes a solo male traveler by the arm into a side-street bar; drinks and “companionship” charges pile on without a visible menu; the tab arrives at 4,000,000–8,000,000 VND with staff positioned between the customer and the door. Tuoi Tre and Thanh Nien have covered the Pham Ngu Lao backpacker-district extortion circuit for years — the pattern is the same as Patpong’s, scaled to Saigon, and 113 on speakerphone ends it in about ninety seconds…

Red flag: Any bar you enter because a solicitor picked it, not you.
Full pattern, the menu-demand script & the phrase that collapses it — inside.
Excerpt · Hoi An

The “Exclusive Fabric” Tailor Markup

Hoi An has more than three hundred tailor shops in a UNESCO ancient town two streets wide. The pattern at the worst of them: a tout approaches with “free tea and design consultation,” the tailor quotes 3,000,000 VND for a silk shirt that the identical silk sells for 800,000 at two shops down, and hotel concierges take commission for steering guests to their “partner.” VnExpress and Vietnam News have repeatedly flagged the circuit — the defense is cross-referencing three shops and paying by credit card so a chargeback is possible if the garment isn’t what was promised…

Red flag: A tailor quoting a price more than twice the street average without letting you see the fabric bolt and weight.
Full pattern, the three-shop-price-check rule & the credit-card chargeback script — inside.

A look inside

Every scam in the book gets a four-panel comic. A sneak peek of two of the 66:

Noi Bai Fake-Grab Driver — comic illustration
Hanoi · Noi Bai Fake-Grab Driver
Tan Son Nhat Fake-Grab Driver — comic illustration
Ho Chi Minh City · Tan Son Nhat Fake-Grab Driver

11 cities and regions covered

From Hanoi fake-Grab airport scripts to HCMC Bui Vien bar extortion, Hoi An tailor markups, and Phu Quoc jet-ski deposit-damage claims — full coverage of where travelers actually get caught out.

🏮 Hanoi
⛵ Ha Long Bay
🏔️ Sapa
🏯 Hue
🪔 Hoi An
🌉 Da Nang
🏖️ Nha Trang
🌲 Dalat
🛵 Ho Chi Minh City
🛶 Can Tho
🥥 Phu Quoc

Why tabiji.ai writes these books

Volumes 1 (Japan, 60 scams), 2 (Italy, 149), 3 (France, 191), 4 (Thailand, 67), and 5 (Greece, 65) set the series structure. Vietnam sits at a dense crossroads of Southeast-Asia scam archetypes — the fake-Grab airport script, the off-platform hotel-booking fraud, the rental-damage deposit cycle, the tourist-restaurant dual-menu overcharge. Learn the Vietnam pattern and you’ll spot the same move in Phnom Penh, Kuala Lumpur, and Bali.

📰

Vietnamese-press sourced, not Reddit-only

Every scam is documented against Vietnamese news coverage — Tuoi Tre, VnExpress, Thanh Nien, VietnamPlus, Vietnam News — plus VNAT tourist-assistance (dial 1800 1552) and People’s Public Security bulletins, VCCA consumer advisories, and firsthand traveler accounts on r/VietNam and r/vietnamtravel. Named operators and dated incidents where we have them.

🗣️

Vietnamese phrases, not vague warnings

A full appendix of Vietnamese exit phrases — “không, cảm ơn” (no, thank you), “tôi sẽ gọi cảnh sát” (I’m calling the police), “cho tôi xem thực đơn tiếng Việt” (give me the Vietnamese menu, please) — with pronunciation guides and when to use them. Plus the 6 universal scam patterns that let you spot variations we haven’t documented yet.

🔄

Updated annually

Scams evolve. Fake-Grab operators rotate phone-screen mockups each month. Hoi An tailor fronts change shop names every tourist season. Phu Quoc jet-ski operators shuffle deposit thresholds with the VND-dollar rate — we re-research and update each book every year. Buy once, re-download future editions from your Amazon library.

TABIJI · TRAVEL SAFETY What the guidebooks won’t tell you. Hanoi runs one of the most rehearsed fake-Grab scripts in Asia. Hoi An and Hue work tailor markups and motorbike deposit cycles. Ha Long Bay and Phu Quoc cruise tickets cost half at the real booth. This book documents 66 specific scams across 11 Vietnamese cities and regions — drawn from Tuoi Tre, VnExpress, Thanh Nien, and VNAT tourist-assistance (1800 1552) records. You’ll learn the exact scripts scammers use, the red flags that give them away, and the Vietnamese phrases that shut them down on the spot. INSIDE 66 scams with exact Vietnamese scripts and dong amounts Six universal red-flag patterns covering every scam in Vietnam A four-panel Dong Ho woodblock-style comic for every scam entry Coverage of Hanoi, HCMC, Hoi An, Da Nang, Sapa & 6 more Vietnamese phrases you will encounter at the scene, with pronunciation PLUS A Vietnamese exit-phrase card you can screenshot to your phone A post-scam recovery playbook (first 15 min, first hour, first day) Emergency contacts: 1800 1552 VNAT hotline + every major hospital KINDLE EDITION · 2026

“What the guidebooks won’t tell you.”

Part of the Travel Safety Series

Vietnam is Volume 6 of 15 flagship titles. Japan (Volume 1), Italy (Volume 2), France (Volume 3), Thailand (Volume 4), and Greece (Volume 5) are live. Each country gets the same treatment — real traveler stories, local-press sourced, annual updates.

🇯🇵

Japan →

Volume 1 · Live
🇮🇹

Italy →

Volume 2 · Live
🇫🇷

France →

Volume 3 · Live
🇹🇭

Thailand →

Volume 4 · Live
🇬🇷

Greece →

Volume 5 · Live
🇻🇳

Vietnam

Volume 6 · Featured

🇲🇽

Mexico

Coming 2026

🇪🇸

Spain

Coming 2026

📚

See the full series →

All upcoming titles

Frequently asked

Quick answers about the book, pricing, and updates.

What format is this book?

Kindle eBook and 6×9″ trade paperback — the Kindle reads on any phone, tablet, or computer with the free Kindle app, and the paperback is available through Amazon’s KDP print-on-demand network.

How long is it?

282 pages in paperback, ~230 pages on Kindle — written to be read in a single flight over and referenced on your phone in-country.

How much does it cost?

$4.99 USD on Amazon Kindle. Price varies slightly by Amazon region.

Will the book be updated?

Yes — we re-research and update each book annually as scams evolve. Buy once, re-download future editions from your Amazon library at no extra cost.

Can I get a refund?

Yes. Amazon’s standard Kindle refund policy applies — you have 7 days from purchase to return for a full refund, no questions asked.

Readers

★ 5.0 from 1 verified review.

From a verified Amazon reader of Vietnam: Tourist Scams 2026.

★★★★★

"An incredibly helpful guide that breaks down real risks in a clear and practical way. The city-by-city approach makes it easy to prepare ahead, and the tips are straightforward and useful."

Javier Wise
Kindle edition

Available now on Amazon Kindle

66 scams, 11 Vietnamese cities and regions, the exact scripts and Vietnamese phrases you need. $4.99 — read it on the flight over.

Buy on Amazon →
Hanoi scams HCMC scams Hoi An scams All Vietnam cities All destinations