Beware of scams when traveling

Talking to us, a representative of Dragon Sea Hotel in Truong Son Ward, Sam Son City, Thanh Hoa Province said that up to now, the room booking rate for the April 30 and May 1 holidays has reached over 80% of room capacity. During the booking process, if any problems arise, hotel staff will communicate with customers via the hotel hotline; with some regular customers, staff will communicate via Zalo application. However, in any case, hotel staff will not ask customers to provide personal information such as pin codes, passwords or sensitive personal information related to bank accounts, but only ask customers to send a photo of a successful transaction notification.

In addition, if customers feel suspicious, they can look up hotel information to compare with the account number before transferring the room deposit. A representative of Dragon Sea Hotel added: “Our bank account is a business account, not a personal account. In addition to the website, we also have two Facebook pages with 18,000 and 13,000 likes and followers respectively. Recently, we have also discovered a number of fake Facebook pages using our information and images but using different phone numbers. We have warned customers about this and hope that people will be more vigilant and check information carefully before making transactions. All transactions are made through business accounts, not through personal accounts. If there are any suspicious signs, customers can contact our hotline: 0237.3826.666/0907.416.789/0939.232.789”.

Tourists stay at Homestay CoTo Mini. Photo: LE HOANG

Homestay CoTo Mini tourist facility at Van Chay beach, Nam Ha village, Dong Tien commune, Co To island district (Quang Ninh) owned by Ms. Hoang Thi Le is also basically fully booked for the upcoming holiday. She said that in addition to direct bookings, customers also book through some intermediaries associated with the facility. To be sure before transferring the deposit, some customers called her at 0889.135.378 posted on the facility's Facebook page named "To CoTo Mini Resort" to check. "In the face of sophisticated tricks of scammers, I will post warnings on social networking sites to contribute to the whole society's warning to people. I also hope that people will always be vigilant, carefully check and compare information before making transactions," Ms. Hoang Thi Le expressed.

Recalling the case of a citizen who was scammed out of more than 1 billion VND in early February 2025 when booking a room through a fake fanpage of a tourist establishment in Ninh Binh province, Dr. and lawyer Dang Van Cuong, Head of Chinh Phap Law Office, Hanoi Bar Association, advised people to be extremely vigilant against a series of new forms of online fraud but with familiar scenarios such as impersonating employees of hotels, homestays, resorts... asking for deposits and then appropriating them. People also need to be careful with online airline ticket sales pages, cheap tours; fake calls with faces, voices... have been warned by authorities such as: Firstly, faking photos of receipts, payment invoices and company seals; after customers transfer payment for tourism services, the subjects will block communication and erase all traces.

Second, they advertise and post tours, cheap hotel rooms, and many incentives. When a victim approaches, the subject invites them and asks them to transfer a deposit of 30-50% of the value. Then, they ask the victim to declare information, complete the application... to steal personal information and appropriate property. Third, they lure victims by posting articles advertising visa services for foreign travel, promising a high success rate, and refunding 100% of the money if the visa is not granted. Then, they also ask to pay part of the cost, provide personal information to complete the application... to appropriate property or use the excuse that the victim has declared missing information and does not return the money. Fourth, they take advantage of the need and habit of booking tickets online for travel, returning home... but return the boarding pass with information edited such as ticket price, promotional object, train departure date, departure station - arrival station... so it is not valid for traveling.

Dr. and lawyer Dang Van Cuong reminded people: “To avoid losing money, people need to be extremely cautious with travel packages, hotel rooms, and airline tickets that are too cheap. At the same time, carefully research information when choosing travel packages; choose reputable service providers; ask partners to show their business licenses, documents, and practice certificates... Carefully check the domain names of websites and pay attention, fake website domain names are always similar to real website names but will have some additional characters. Restaurant owners and service businesses also need to be aware of scams and appropriation of hundreds of millions of dong by tricks such as booking parties, asking to buy alcohol and food for customers to use...”.

According to the People's Army Newspaper

Source: https://baolaocai.vn/can-than-voi-cac-chieu-tro-lua-dao-khi-di-du-lich-post400771.html