Money Exchange Scams and Where to Change Currency Safely

Vietnam's currency, the đồng, runs to large numbers — a hotel room can cost 1,500,000 VND, a coffee 35,000, a beer 25,000. The denominations themselves are easy to confuse: the 20,000 and 500,000 notes are both blueish, the 100,000 and 10,000 both have a similar greenish-brown cast in low light. Most changers are honest. The ones that aren't lean heavily on the maths confusion and on the moment when cash is handed over.

How the small-changer scam works

The classic version sits in a jewellery shop, gold shop, or a streetside booth in tourist zones — Bùi Viện in HCMC, the Old Quarter in Hanoi, the riverside in Hoi An. The rate posted in the window is excellent, often noticeably better than the bank rate. You hand over your foreign cash. The changer types into a calculator, shows you a number you're happy with, and counts out a stack of đồng.

The trick comes in one of three places:

• The calculator flick. They show you the agreed rate, then "recalculate" with a small adjustment — a 0 dropped, a comma moved, a fee added — and hand you noticeably less than the window rate implied.
• The count. They count the notes out for you, then take the stack back to "straighten it" or put it in an envelope, and a few notes vanish in the process. Often the missing notes are the 500,000s.
• The counterfeit swap. One or two 500,000 notes in the stack are counterfeit. The print quality is usually obvious in daylight, but in a dim shop it's easy to miss.

A fourth variant: the rate posted in the window applies only to amounts above some threshold not mentioned until after the count, and a much worse rate applies to your actual amount.

How to avoid it

The shortest answer is don't use independent street changers. The marginal extra you might get over a bank rate isn't worth the risk and, in practice, often isn't real anyway.

A simple hierarchy of better options:

• ATMs, almost anywhere. The best practical rate for most travellers, especially if your home card has low or no foreign transaction fees. Vietnamese ATMs charge a withdrawal fee (typically 22,000–55,000 VND depending on the bank); look for higher-limit machines (HSBC, Citi, Standard Chartered branches in big cities) to reduce per-trip fees. Pair this with ATM and card skimming precautions — use bank-attached machines in daylight, cover the keypad.
• Major Vietnamese banks for cash exchange. Vietcombank, BIDV, ACB, Sacombank, and Techcombank all change major currencies at fair rates with no tricks. Bring your passport. The process is slower than a street changer (10–20 minutes) but the rate is published and the count is honest.
• Airport exchange counters at Noi Bai (Hanoi) and Tan Son Nhat (HCMC) — reputable but at worse rates than in-city banks. Useful for the first $30–50 of taxi and noodle money; not where you should change a week's budget.
• Hotel front desks at mid-range and up — fair rates, small markup, no tricks. Convenient for last-day exchange-back if you're leaving with extra đồng.

Spotting counterfeit notes

The 500,000 VND note is the main counterfeit target. Real ones are made of polymer (a plastic-feeling substrate), have a clear see-through window with a small image, a colour-shifting denomination number that flips between green and copper depending on angle, and a raised intaglio printing on the portrait that you can feel with a fingernail. Hold a suspect note up to the light and check the watermark portrait matches the printed one.

If you receive a note you're unsure about, swap it back immediately, before you leave the counter. Banks will exchange genuine worn or damaged notes; counterfeits get confiscated with no refund.

What to do if it happens

If you realise at the counter that the rate or count is wrong, the right move is to ask for the transaction to be redone, in front of you, slowly. Many small overcharges resolve at this point — the changer doesn't want a scene. If they refuse, hand back the đồng, take back your foreign cash, and walk out.

If you only notice after leaving, you have very little recourse on cash. Photograph the shop's signage and posted rate, note the address, and consider reporting it to the tourist police (069 219 0150 in Hanoi, 028 3838 7200 in HCMC). You're unlikely to get the money back; you may help the next person.

For counterfeit notes already in your wallet: take them to a major bank and ask. They'll confirm and remove them from circulation. You lose the money, but you won't accidentally pass them on and get into a separate problem.

In normal use, a foreign card and a bank ATM will cover almost any trip without ever needing to touch a street changer. That's the single change that removes most of the risk.