Ho Chi Minh City police warn of extremely sophisticated summer travel scams.

As the 2026 summer tourist season begins, scams promising "100% visa approval" for tours, homestays, and visas are rampant on social media. Ho Chi Minh City police are warning that many individuals are using fake fan pages, running cheap advertisements, and creating fake invoices to steal deposits from tourists.

Ho Chi Minh City police have issued a warning about online travel scams as the peak summer travel season of 2026 approaches. (Illustrative image)

On May 28th, the Criminal Police Department (PC02) of the Ho Chi Minh City Police issued a warning about the increasingly complex situation of online tourism scams as the peak summer tourist season of 2026 approaches.

Recently, the unit has continuously received complaints from people about being scammed when booking hotel rooms, homestays, or buying airline tickets through social media. Many victims lost from several million to tens of millions of VND after transferring deposit money to individuals impersonating reputable travel companies and agencies.

Furthermore, a common tactic nowadays is to create Facebook fan pages, groups, or Zalo accounts with interfaces similar to those of major travel brands. To build trust, these scammers spend heavily on advertising with programs such as "golden hour combos," "last-minute tickets," "50% off tours," cheap 5-star hotels, or super-affordable overseas tours. Notably, many fake fan pages are verified with a "blue checkmark" and use names very similar to the real brands, making it very difficult for users to distinguish them. Many people are careless because they see high follower counts and many positive comments, so they quickly transfer deposit money.

According to the Ho Chi Minh City Police, to gain absolute trust, the perpetrators also used hundreds of fake accounts to comment praising the service, post photos of tourists as "feedback," and even forged bank transfer receipts, confirmations of successful flight and hotel bookings.

After the victims transfer the money (usually 50% to 100% of the service package value), the perpetrators immediately lock the account, block communication, or delete the fan page to erase all traces. Many families only discover they have been scammed when they arrive at the airport or their accommodation, only to find that the hotel has no booking information.

Besides cheap tour packages, PC02 reported a sharp increase in scams involving the rental of "fake" homestays and villas in popular tourist destinations such as Da Lat, Nha Trang, Da Nang , and Vung Tau.

Scammers often copy images and videos of luxury villas from the internet and repost them at unusually low prices to attract customers. When potential renters are still suspicious, the scammers send fake business licenses, rental contracts, or invoices with forged red stamps to build trust.

Many tourists are shocked to discover, after traveling hundreds of kilometers, that their homestay address doesn't exist or is just an ordinary house. Furthermore, with the surge in overseas travel during the summer, scams promising "100% visa approval," "super-fast processing," and "no financial proof required" are flourishing on social media.

According to PC02, the perpetrators exploit people's reluctance to deal with complicated procedures and their desire for quick results, luring victims into paying tens of millions of VND in service fees along with their passports, citizen identification cards, and other important personal documents. "Not only do people lose money, but they also risk having their personal data leaked. This information could be used by criminals to open fake bank accounts, borrow money through apps, or commit other illegal acts," a PC02 representative warned.

To avoid becoming victims of travel scams, the Ho Chi Minh City Police Department advises people not to trust tours or packages that are unusually cheap compared to the market price. People should carefully check the legal information of the travel company, prioritize transactions through official websites or applications, and call the airline, hotel, or resort directly to confirm booking information before transferring money.

The police also advise people to be highly vigilant and limit transferring money to personal accounts, and absolutely not to provide photos of their citizen identification cards, bank account information, or OTP codes to strangers via social media. In case of suspected fraud, people should save all messages and transfer receipts and promptly report it to the nearest police station for assistance.

Source: https://baotintuc.vn/phap-luat/cong-an-tp-ho-chi-minh-canh-bao-chieu-lua-du-lich-he-cuc-tinh-vi-20260528172024983.htm