Previously, in early May 2023, Thua Thien Hue Police had to coordinate with the Department of Tourism Inspectorate of this province to search for scammers selling cheap hotel rooms to tourists...
As we enter the peak summer tourist season this year, scams and fraud schemes are becoming more and more sophisticated. Taking advantage of people's increasing demand for travel, especially the psychology of wanting cheap prices, many subjects have launched attractive advertisements on social networks to defraud and appropriate property.
The most common trick is to post advertisements for selling tours, travel combos, hotel rooms at "super cheap" prices with many accompanying utilities. Once they have caught the cheap-loving but uninformed people, they ask the customers to transfer a deposit in advance (transfer by bank card) and then take this money.
Tourists need to be careful when choosing cheap tours. (Photo: LE MINH)
To strengthen tourists' trust, these subjects do not hesitate to fake the Website or Fanpage of reputable travel companies, even fake receipts and payment invoices. Many subjects are also willing to "buy Comments" on Fanpage or create fake interactions and comments, show transaction history to show that many people have bought the service, have positive reviews to "trap" tourists who are greedy for cheap prices.
More sophisticatedly, they set up a coordination line so that before transferring the deposit, if the customer is still hesitant, they can call the landline number (provided by the website) to contact and verify the information, there will always be someone to answer the phone, confirm the information about the company, staff... just like the real thing. Some people, after receiving the deposit, immediately send the airline ticket code, room reservation code... to reassure the customer that everything is done, but in fact, it is just a reservation code - it will self-destruct if not paid...
In the face of the “matrix” of scams, if tourists are just a little careless, they can easily fall into the “trap” of cheap travel. Recently, many people have been unable to register for tickets at the airport, arriving at a place of accommodation that is not listed in the booking system, and when they contacted the seller, they were unable to contact the subscriber, only to realize that they had been scammed.
Recently, there has been a situation where subjects who provide foreign tourist visa services commit to 100% "pass". After receiving a partial payment, these subjects only give perfunctory instructions, let customers self-declare information, complete the application, then use the excuse that the customer failed the visa due to missing information, and do not return the money. Along with that, there are cases where scammers steal users' social media accounts, use technology to create fake images and calls - seemingly real - to "act" as notifications of being stuck while traveling abroad to borrow money urgently from people on their friends list...
In the context of the entire tourism industry trying to recover and accelerate development after the Covid-19 pandemic, the "blooming" of the above-mentioned fraudulent behaviors not only causes disruption and negatively affects the tourism environment, but also damages trust and causes skepticism among tourists - even when they receive real stimulus programs.
To help prevent and repel this situation, the Ministry of Public Security recently recommended that people should carefully research information when choosing travel packages; should choose tour, room, and airline ticket booking services from reputable companies or through famous travel applications. People have every right to ask the partner to show them the business license, documents, and practice certificates of the travel and tourism company.
In addition, people need to pay attention to the signs of fake websites. The domain names of fake websites often have some characters added or missing, and often use strange extensions, such as: ".cc", ".xyz", ".tk"... For buying and selling activities on social networks, people should choose social networking sites with blue ticks (registered accounts) or choose reputable social networking sites where they know the seller's information clearly.
According to experts, to clean up the tourism business environment, in addition to stepping up inspection, examination and strict handling of fraudulent subjects, it is more important to raise people's awareness and alertness when choosing to buy tourism services. Most tourism frauds take place online, while social media accounts are easy to create and delete.
Therefore, to avoid being scammed, customers should not transact with individuals whose information is unclear; absolutely do not transfer money to accounts that are not the company's specific account; need to go to the company's headquarters to confirm instead of just going through social networks.
In particular, people need to be careful with tourism services offered at unusually low prices, because deep price reductions at this time are difficult to achieve when airfare, fuel, and operating costs are all increasing. Tourists should also take screenshots of tour sellers via video call, save photos of the seller's ID card, photos of transactions made... as evidence to report if they are unlucky enough to become a victim of fraud.
