Beware of travel scams during peak summer months

A representative of Dragon Sea Hotel (Sam Son City) spoke with reporters about Facebook pages impersonating the hotel to scam customers.

Since the beginning of March, many tourism service providers in the province have reported that customers have been scammed by booking hotel rooms via social networks. Despite warnings, scammers often change their methods, with increasingly sophisticated tricks. Many customers, after transferring their deposit, were shocked to find out that the accommodation did not exist or had been fully booked for a long time.

Mr. Hoang Thanh Vuong, CEO of the 4-star Dragon Sea hotel chain in the Sam Son coastal tourist urban area (Sam Son city) said: “Since the beginning of March, we have received more than 20 cases of customers calling the hotel hotline to report being scammed for their room service deposits. Most of the cases booked rooms through fake Facebook fanpages and transferred deposits ranging from several million to several tens of millions of VND. When checking with us, there was no such booking information. What is worrying is that some fake Facebook pages have thousands of followers, even blue ticks, making it easy for customers to be scammed.”

According to Mr. Vuong, in this situation, the official Facebook fanpage of the hotel “Dragon Sea Hotel” currently has 18K likes and 18K followers, and has regularly posted warnings and pointed out some fake Facebook pages for customers to be aware of. Taking advantage of the names of large, reputable hotels like Dragon Sea to commit fraud not only causes damage to tourists, but more seriously, directly affects the brand of the business and the destination.

Through information from tourism service businesses, to gain trust from tourists, scammers often target 3-5 star quality accommodation and restaurants. FLC Sam Son Eco-tourism Resort is no exception. This unit has posted similar warnings on its fanpage,

facebook. Ms. Do Thi Thuy (Sales & Marketing Department of FLC Sam Son) said: “From mid-March until now, we have recorded many cases of tourists being scammed when booking rooms through fake Facebook or Zalo accounts impersonating consultants and service providers. Some subjects even use the FLC logo, images of rooms and amenities at the resort to post on social networking sites to create trust with tourists. However, most tourists only contact us to confirm after transferring the deposit, by which time it is too late.”

According to Ms. Thuy, "Equipping tourists with information is the most effective way at the moment to minimize risks during the peak tourist season. We are always ready to support tourists in checking their booking information via the hotline or official Facebook channel. In addition, regularly updating warnings and sharing safe travel experiences on the Facebook page "FLC Sam Son" (currently has 31K likes, 34K followers) during the peak season is also an indispensable part of our communication and customer care work".

Explaining why most tourists usually transfer money before contacting the service provider to confirm, representatives of some tourism businesses said that scammers offer extremely attractive service prices, along with "lightning-fast" incentive programs. This is considered a "psychological attack", hitting the "greed" of tourists. Because the summer months are the peak tourist season, it is easy for "services to run out", or incentive programs to end quickly.

Not only stopping at accommodation services, scammers also target a number of services such as package tours, meals, sightseeing tickets or entertainment... The subjects often use social networks to advertise "cheap travel combos", along with attractive invitations.

Director of Pu Luong Eco Garden Resort (Ba Thuoc) Do Duc Manh said: “Recently, a scammer created a fake fanpage of our resort to offer a “Pleasant Season” combo for only 990,000 VND/guest/2 days 1 night, with many incentives from rooms to food and many other amenities. In addition, the scammer also created a bank account named “Resort Servicers LLC” to strengthen customer trust. Worryingly, the scammer also carefully researched our information, customer consultation methods and service booking process in a very methodical manner. Therefore, even some customers who have booked services before can be scammed.”

To help prevent fraud during the peak tourist season, one of the solutions proposed by businesses is that on the website of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism “svhttdl.thanhhoa.gov.vn”, the provincial tourism website “dulichthanhhoa.org” and the Facebook fanpage “Thanh Hoa Tourism - Fragrance of 4 Seasons”, it is necessary to research and collect authentic information, provide links to the system of hotels, restaurants, travel agencies... in the province. On that basis, businesses will proactively update regularly the incentive programs, travel combos; publicize the service booking process... so that tourists can grasp and verify the information before making a decision.

It can be seen that the situation of fraud during the peak tourist season is really a "test" for service businesses in flexibly handling problems and enhancing brand recognition. At the same time, it poses a problem for State management agencies and functional forces in implementing solutions to build a safe and civilized tourism environment. And above all, this is also a reminder that, although technology is increasingly developing and fraud is increasingly sophisticated, the human factor - the honesty of the seller and the alertness and sensitivity of the customer are always the most important factors in building a healthy tourism environment.

Article and photos: Hoai Anh

Source: https://baothanhhoa.vn/can-trong-truoc-cac-chieu-tro-lua-dao-du-lich-trong-nhung-thang-cao-diem-he-249709.htm