Hanoi petrol stations’ fraudulent sales exposed By Ha Trang-Xuan Ngoc | dtinews.vn | August 02, 2013 09:43 AM DTiNews reporters have just uncovered a fraudulent sales trick practised by two petrol stations in Hanoi-- following several denouncements from readers--which has caused public outrage.   The customer (in white T-shirt) lost VND50,000 due to the fraudulent trick The petrol station at No. 342  Pham Van Dong Street, Tu Liem, Hanoi, under the management of Nam Anh Petroleum JSC, has been continuously picking customers’ pockets in a sophisticated way. Staff members at the station work together to steal petrol from customers. When customers do not pay attention to the filling gauge on the station's pumps, the staff members quickly use their trick of erasing the number on the gauge e.g. VND50,000 (USD2.38) then selling petrol to a new customer starting, not at zero, but at VND50,000 already paid by the previous customer. Then when the next customer checks the gauge and prepares to pay he's paying an extra VND50,000. According to the reporters’ observations at the station, besides two staff members who specialise in pumping petrol, another one hides behind an iron door to support these two. In the video, you can see that the victim, whose number plate is 36 F4 5182, was obviously cheated. When the staff is pumping petrol for her, the gauge suddenly stops at VND30,450 instead of the ordered amount of VND50,000 and  was quickly returned to zero, before the woman noticed. Another customer, wearing a yellow T-shirt bought VND50,000 of petrol, but again the same trick, the staff member only filled to the level of VND40,910. The staff member of the petrol station on Nghiem Xuan Yem Street Many customers fall prey to the fraudulent petrol stations, because they don't pay attention to what's going on.   Looking at the video, you can see, after pumping petrol for two motorbikes to the level of VND100,908, the staff member did not let the the station’s fuel gauge to return to zero, instead it was kept active and continued filling for the customer whose plate number is 29A 796.44. DTiNews reporters have continued their inspection of petrol stations in Hanoi, detecting more violations on Nghiem Xuan Yem Street in Thanh Tri District. When the fuel gauge showed the value of VND1.103 million (USD52.38), the customer paid them the money, but did not know  they really received petrol worth only VND900,000 (USD42.85). Using this trick, the staff member cheated many other customers successfully. In cases where the customer saw what was happening, the attendant urgently adjusted the fuel gauge then laughed the whole thing off with the customer. Three staff members suspended of violations The three staff members who appear in the video of the station on Pham Van Dong Street, namely, Ninh Thi Mai, Nguyen Van Gap and Nguyen Van Tung have been suspended. The station under Petrolimex has been in operation since March 2012. Speaking with DTiNews reporters, Mai admitted the fraudulent sales on July 30, however, when asked about previous similar actions, she  hemmed and hawed for long moments without being able to give an answer. Meanwhile, Nguyen Van Giap denied his violations. However, when the reporters showed him the video, he admitted collaborating with Mai in the fraud.