What can tourists do to identify fraudulent Fanpages impersonating hotels?

Da Nang City Police have just issued a warning about the trick of impersonating Fanpages to scam and steal hotel deposits from tourists.

According to the police, recently, the trend of booking hotels and buying airline tickets via social networks such as Facebook has become increasingly popular. Besides the convenience, anonymity on the internet, especially social networks, is exploited by many scammers.

For example, before the recent April 30 - May 1 holiday, Ms. NTP (living in Quang Ngai City) needed to book a room for her relatives at a hotel in Son Tra District (Da Nang City). She searched on Facebook and exchanged information via social networks with someone who claimed to be a hotel employee.

Initially, she transferred 3.2 million VND (50% of the hotel room fee for the vacation) to her personal account, but this person claimed that there was a banking system error, so he had not received it yet, and asked her to transfer another 3.2 million VND to hold the room.

This employee promised to refund if she received more money, so Ms. P. trusted her and transferred more. After that, Ms. P. could not contact the Facebook page to confirm the booking, so she searched for the hotel's phone number online and called, only to find out she had been scammed.

According to police statistics and reports received, there are many Fanpages impersonating high-end hotels in Da Nang as well as famous destinations such as Nha Trang, Phu Quoc, Sa Pa...

Da Nang City Police provide instructions on checking the authenticity of a fake Fanpage of a luxury hotel by changing the name and location of the page many times abroad.

PHOTO: DA NANG CITY POLICE

Fraudulent tricks are increasingly sophisticated, appearing everywhere on social networks, all aimed at appropriating tourists' room deposits.

Fraudulent Fanpages create interfaces similar to the official Fanpages of famous hotels, then run priority display ads on Facebook with attractive offers such as "5-star rooms priced from only 300,000 - 500,000 VND/night", with invitations to "book now", "limited offer".

Interested tourists were immediately texted and called by scammers to persuade them to transfer a deposit of 30-50% of the room value, promising to refund if the customer cancels the room.

Some even forge booking confirmation emails from Gmail, Zalo... very professionally.

However, after receiving the deposit, the fake Fanpages cut off contact, the phone numbers were all junk SIMs, making it difficult for the police to verify and resolve the matter.

Da Nang City Police said this is not a new scam trend, but the tricks and forms have been improved in a more sophisticated direction, so more and more victims are falling into the trap.

Faced with the above situation, Da Nang City Police recommend that residents and tourists need to be more vigilant.

City police also guide residents and tourists through the steps to check authenticity online before making transactions.

First, carefully check the Fanpage, check the date the page was created, the number of followers and the reviews. Fake pages often have low interaction or are newly created, or use tricks to increase the number of likes and followers. Before making a transaction, you need to contact the hotel directly, call to confirm information via the official phone number published on the website or Google Maps.

"Absolutely do not transfer money to personal accounts, reputable hotels often require deposits through company accounts or booking platforms such as Booking, Traveloka, Agoda... When you see a very attractive discount such as a 5-star hotel room price reduced to 1/2 or 1/3 of the market price, you must research carefully. Check the transparency of the Fanpage by going to "Introduction" then "Page Transparency" to check the name change history, the country where the page was created and the administrative information, check the information about the page name being changed many times, the location of the Fanpage is often abroad, while the hotel is domestic", Da Nang City Police recommends.

Source: https://thanhnien.vn/du-khach-lam-gi-de-nhan-dien-fanpage-lua-dao-mao-danh-khach-san-185250506185718291.htm