Beware of scams during the holidays of April 30 and May 1

Hotel scam in Hue

On the afternoon of April 28, the Department of Tourism informed that tourism inspectors had just received two complaints from tourists about being scammed into selling cheap hotel rooms on the internet and social networks.

A tourist reported that previously, on social media, a hotel announced that its system in Thua Thien Hue was offering a room discount during the holiday. Seeing this, the tourist contacted to book a room. The two sides agreed that each room would cost 700,000 VND/night (the guest booked 2 nights). Check-in time was April 29. After the guest transferred the deposit, he called to verify and found out that this hotel was located in Da Lat, had no system in Hue and did not sell rooms to guests at all. Feeling cheated, the tourist reported the incident to the Thua Thien Hue tourism inspector via the hotline.

Mr. Nguyen Thai Hoa, Chief Inspector of the Department of Tourism, confirmed that after receiving the information, the Department Inspectorate checked the name of the hotel that the tourists reported and found that it was not in Thua Thien Hue, but in Da Lat. Immediately after that, the Department Inspectorate coordinated with the Provincial Police to check and find the online scammer.

Through assessment, this is a new form of fraud, very sophisticated. Most likely the subject is in another province, not in Thua Thien Hue, who has been selling cheap hotel rooms. When the customer transfers the deposit, the phone number is locked, blocking contact.

In the context of domestic tourism in the peak season, airfares and prices of services will increase higher than usual. Grasping the psychology and needs of people traveling during the 5-day holiday, many subjects have "launched" extremely sophisticated tricks, such as setting up websites to sell cheap airfares, room rates or cheap travel combos... on social networks to scam and appropriate property. Many tourists, due to lack of experience, partly because of their desire for cheap prices, have lost their vigilance and become victims of these scammers.

The Department of Tourism added that in addition to the above forms of fraud, recently, there have been cases of subjects posting articles advertising foreign tourist visa services, committing a high success rate and refunding 100% of the money if the visa is not granted. After the victim transfers the payment or part of the payment, the subjects will let the victim fill in the application form, complete the application... Then, they will use the excuse that the victim provided missing information and will not return the money.

“More sophisticatedly, the subjects impersonate airline ticket agents, create their own websites and social networking sites, with links and designs similar to those of airlines or official agents. Then they advertise with very attractive prices compared to the general level to attract customers. If customers contact them, the subjects will book airline tickets, send the booking code as collateral and ask the customer to pay. After receiving payment, the subjects do not issue airline tickets and cut off contact. Because the booking code has not been issued to the airline ticket, it will automatically cancel after a while and the customer will only know about this when they arrive at the airport,” Mr. Nguyen Thai Hoa informed.

Tourists need to be careful

The Department of Tourism said that cyber tourism fraud is becoming more and more complex and difficult to control. Individuals in one locality are fraudulently selling services in another locality, such as the two cases that have just been reported to the department, so information about the fraudsters is difficult to verify.

Faced with complicated signs of fraud in the tourism industry nationwide in general and Thua Thien Hue in particular, on April 27, an interdisciplinary team, including the Department of Tourism, the Provincial Police, Hue City, and the Provincial Food Safety and Hygiene Department, organized an inspection of the tourism environment to ensure activities during the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day, April 30 and May 1 holidays.

The interdisciplinary delegation requested hotels, restaurants, and tourist attractions to publicly announce service prices, fully list them, and if there are any promotional programs, fully inform tourists. On the website system, the social networking site of the business provides full contact information. At the same time, proactively report to industry management to promptly handle incidents affecting tourism during the holiday.

Mr. Hoang Phuoc Nhat, Deputy Director of the Department of Tourism, emphasized that the most important and first thing is that people and tourists need to be vigilant when buying travel packages. It is necessary to carefully check with tours and cheap promotions during the holiday season; be especially careful when the travel agency requires a deposit to hold a seat, if possible, make direct payment transactions. Reconfirm information on room reservations and air tickets to promptly detect signs of fraud, report to the nearest police station for instructions on how to handle the situation.

The Department of Tourism further recommends that for social networking sites that sell and promote travel packages, especially cheap travel packages and cheap airline tickets, people should choose social networking sites with a blue tick (registered accounts), or choose reputable social networking sites where they know the seller's information clearly.

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