Hoang Hue Tam
The case was brought to light when a couple in Hanoi was tricked by Tam. The couple came to Tam to find a surrogate mother as the wife is infertile. They signed a VND620m (USD26,700) contract for a son and paid VND100m in advance to Tam. However, after receiving the money, both Tam and the surrogate mother disappeared. The couple then reported the case to the police.
The police faced some difficulties as Tam had used fake ID cards and marriage certificates to complete procedures at hospitals. Tam later went to the police to confess.
Tam said realising the need of infertile couples, she had searched for potential customers as well as surrogate mothers via social media and started the surrogacy business.
The surrogate mothers are mostly university students from various cities and provinces. Each case, Tam profited VND100m (USD4,300) to VND200m and the surrogate mothers earned VND200m to VND500m. After the deals were sealed, Tam would bring the surrogate mothers to hospitals and then used fake household registration, IDs and marriage certificates to deal with hospital procedures.
Investigations showed that besides surrogacy deals that were completed, there were many couples who were tricked by Tam. Tam received money but didn't help them as promised.