Beware of losing money by booking cheap travel accommodations.

As the peak summer tourist season approaches, criminals are taking advantage of the increased demand for hotel, resort, and homestay bookings to impersonate the fan pages of reputable accommodation establishments and scam people out of their money.

The scammers' tactic is to create fan pages with interfaces that closely resemble the websites and fan pages of reputable resorts, hotels, and homestays. These fan pages have tens of thousands of followers, use hotline phone numbers for contact and consultation, and even have verified badges from Facebook, running ads to build credibility.

These individuals also "buy" fake reviews about bookings or praise for resorts and hotels to build trust with tourists, along with attractive promotional offers.

After the customer contacted the scammer for consultation and finalized the deposit transfer, the scammer informed the customer that the transfer was for the wrong purpose and requested that the money be returned so that the accounting department could verify and refund the excess amount. However, after several transfers of larger sums, the scammer blocked all communication and embezzled the entire amount.

To prevent fraud, the Cyber ​​Security and High-Tech Crime Prevention Department of the Hanoi City Police recommends that people carefully check fanpage information, be wary of advertisements offering rooms at prices significantly lower than the market rate, compare prices across different platforms to ensure reasonableness, and only book through reputable platforms.

In addition, proactively contact the hotel or homestay directly before making payment through the contact information on their official website, such as the hotline number, or send a direct email to verify information about the room and services.

People should not follow requests or instructions to transfer money to these individuals for reasons such as incorrect SMS syntax, money being held up in the system, etc.; absolutely do not download strange applications or click on unknown links from third parties.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/tieu-dung/canh-giac-mat-tien-vi-dat-phong-du-lich-gia-re-20260517110918367.htm