Beware of scams when traveling.

With the upcoming April 30th and May 1st holidays, as well as the summer vacation, families often plan trips. However, with increasingly sophisticated scams such as fraudulent hotel bookings, cheap tickets, discounted tours, and party arrangements, individuals and organizations involved in the tourism industry need to be extremely vigilant to avoid falling victim.

Speaking with us, a representative from Dragon Sea Hotel in Truong Son Ward, Sam Son City, Thanh Hoa Province, stated that, as of now, the booking rate for the April 30th and May 1st holiday has reached over 80% of room capacity. During the booking process, if any issues arise, hotel staff will contact customers via the hotel's hotline; for some regular customers, staff will communicate via the 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; they will only request customers to send images of successful transaction notifications.

Additionally, if customers have any doubts, they can check the hotel's information to verify it against the bank account number before transferring the room deposit. A representative from Dragon Sea Hotel added: “Our bank account is a business account, not a personal account. Besides our website, we also have two Facebook pages with 18,000 and 13,000 likes and followers respectively. Recently, we have also discovered several fake Facebook pages using our information and images but with different phone numbers. We have warned our customers about this and urge people to be vigilant and carefully check information before conducting transactions. All transactions are conducted through our business account, not through personal accounts. If there are any suspicious signs, customers can contact our hotline at: 0237.3826.666/0907.416.789/0939.232.789.”

Tourists staying at CoTo Mini Homestay. Photo: LE HOANG

The CoTo Mini Homestay in Van Chay Beach, Nam Ha Hamlet, Dong Tien Commune, Co To Island District ( Quang Ninh Province), owned by Ms. Hoang Thi Le, is also fully booked for the upcoming holiday. She said that in addition to direct bookings, customers also book through several intermediaries affiliated with the establishment. To ensure security before transferring deposits, some customers call her at the phone number 0889.135.378 listed on the establishment's Facebook page, "To CoTo Mini Resort," to verify the information. "Given the sophisticated tricks of scammers, I will post warnings on social media to help the whole society alert people. I also hope that people will always be vigilant and carefully check and verify information before conducting any transactions," Ms. Hoang Thi Le stated.

Recalling the case of a citizen who was scammed out of over 1 billion VND in early February 2025 when booking a room through a fake fanpage of a tourism establishment in Ninh Binh province, Dr. Dang Van Cuong, Head of Chinh Phap Law Office, Hanoi Bar Association, advised people to be extremely vigilant against a series of new online scams with familiar scenarios such as impersonating hotel, homestay, and resort staff... requesting deposit transfers and then stealing the money. People also need to be cautious of online flight ticket and cheap tour sales websites; fake phone calls with fake faces and voices... which have been warned about by authorities, such as: Firstly, forging photos of receipts, invoices and company seals; after customers transfer money to pay for tourism services, the perpetrators will block communication and erase all traces.

Secondly, there are advertisements and posts selling cheap tours and hotel rooms with many accompanying offers. When a victim approaches, the perpetrators offer and request a deposit of 30-50% of the value. Then, they ask the victim to provide information and complete the application... in order to steal personal information and embezzle money. Thirdly, they lure victims with the trick of posting advertisements for foreign tourist visa services, guaranteeing a high success rate and a 100% refund if the visa is not obtained. Then, they also request payment of a portion of the cost and provide personal information to complete the application... in order to embezzle money or use the excuse that the victim provided incomplete information and do not return the money. Fourthly, they exploit the need and habit of booking tickets online for travel, visiting family, etc., but then provide boarding passes with altered information such as ticket price, promotional items, travel dates, departure and arrival stations... rendering them invalid.

Dr. Dang Van Cuong, a lawyer, advises the public: “To avoid losing money, people need to be extremely vigilant with travel packages, hotel rooms, and airline tickets that are priced too cheaply. At the same time, thoroughly research information when choosing travel packages; choose reputable service providers; request to see business licenses, documents, and professional certificates from the partner... Carefully check the domain names of websites and note that fake website domain names are always very similar to real website names but will have some additional characters. Restaurant owners and service businesses also need to be aware of scams that can defraud customers of hundreds of millions of dong through tricks like ordering parties, asking them to buy alcohol and food for customers to consume...”

According to the People's Army Newspaper (QĐND).

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