Continuous warnings about hotel and resort booking scams during the summer

(NLDO) - The situation of impersonating hotels, resorts, and travel companies to commit fraud is flourishing despite many warnings.

On July 15, reporting to Nguoi Lao Dong Newspaper, Ms. Hoang Nga (residing in Khanh Hoi ward, Ho Chi Minh City) said she had just been scammed out of 10 million VND for a hotel room deposit in Thanh Hoa province.

Be careful, still lose money

According to Ms. Nga, a few days ago, she searched for a 4-5 star resort in the Sam Son beach area (Thanh Hoa) to take her family on a weekend trip. With experience and caution, she consulted all the booking applications to check prices, then found The Victoria Beach Resort FLC Samson.

Seeing that this resort's fanpage on Facebook had many likes, real-life experience videos , pictures, and comments, she texted to ask for room booking information.

"After texting, exchanging, attaching room video photos and finalizing the price, the subject sent a professional receipt with full information: full name, booking date and time, number of people, deposit amount, remaining amount. Feeling confident, I transferred a deposit of 10 million VND with the information of the person booking the room and the date of stay" - Ms. Nga said.

As soon as the deposit was transferred, the subject immediately texted: "The transfer order did not record the transfer content as the deposit receipt" so they asked to transfer the money again, then the company would refund the money to her account. Finding it unreasonable, Ms. Nga began to suspect and when the subject asked her to fill in the information according to the link sent and follow the request... At this time, Ms. Nga realized she was scammed, and luckily did not follow.

Tourists stay at a resort in Mui Ne ward ( Lam Dong province)

The scammers' tricks against Ms. Nga are not new and have been frequently warned about. The Nguoi Lao Dong newspaper has also received similar reports from some readers, who lost several million to tens of millions of dong due to the scam of impersonating hotels, resorts, and travel companies during the peak summer season. Many fake fanpages even have a blue tick, making it difficult for customers to distinguish.

Beware of surprisingly cheap tours!

Leaders of many travel companies also said that fraud in the tourism industry is very sophisticated, especially when customers buy tours, airline tickets or book hotel rooms through social networks or websites of unknown origin.

A representative of Viet Tourism Company cited that if there are subjects advertising super cheap tours such as Japan for 9 million VND, Korea for 6 million VND or European tours for about 29 million VND, they are not real. The purpose of the scammers is to take the deposit of the customers and then disappear. Therefore, customers should not be greedy for unusually cheap tour prices.

A hotel in Ho Chi Minh City warns of impersonation

With hotels and resorts, the situation is similar when scammers create a fanpage and take real photos and addresses, but the zalo number to contact customers is fake. Customers may lose their deposit or when they arrive at the hotel, they do not have a reservation, lose money, waste time and effort traveling...

On July 15, the Department of Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention (Ministry of Public Security) also warned of the emergence of fraudulent activities impersonating travel agencies, accommodation establishments, hotels, resorts, etc. to advertise information about tourism programs. If you see a newly created or renamed account, be vigilant and carefully check information from many different sources.

Source: https://nld.com.vn/nhieu-nguoi-bi-lua-dat-phong-khach-san-resort-dip-he-196250715174735648.htm