Online hotel booking scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Many tourists still fall victim to scams on fan pages because fake channels are becoming increasingly "professional," and before business owners can report old fake channels, new ones have already sprung up.

Ms. Hanh Dinh from Hanoi lost nearly 40 million VND on May 20th due to a transaction made through the fan page of a resort in Ha Long, Quang Ninh. Regularly booking rooms through online platforms, Ms. Hanh booked three rooms through Booking.com in May and paid 8 million VND using a credit card. A few days before her trip, she wanted to cancel two rooms but the free cancellation deadline on the app had passed, so she contacted the resort directly to discuss the matter.

Unable to reach the hotel by phone outside of business hours, she turned to Facebook. The page she found had detailed information, photos, and over 7,000 followers. The person who replied to her message claimed to be a hotel accountant and enthusiastically guided her through several steps to get a refund. They asked her to message the fan page using a specific format so the hotel could send her a refund code, including entering an OTP code after accessing the provided fan page link and entering it into the refund box. The employee sent a video tutorial, emphasizing that she needed to hold down the OTP for a few seconds at the end.

The OTP code corresponds to the amount of money stolen from the account. Photo: Provided by the interviewee.

"The code from the sender is the amount of money stolen from the account, nearly 40 million VND, while the refund through the platform was only a little over 5 million VND," Ms. Hanh said, adding that because she wanted a quick refund, she voluntarily completed all transactions, only realizing she had been scammed when her account showed the deduction.

Ms. Minh Huong from Hanoi said she nearly fell victim to a booking scam via a fanpage when she contacted a fake fanpage promoting a famous resort in Quan Lan, Quang Ninh , with over 10,000 followers. When she messaged to inquire about prices for two nights at the end of June, she received a quick response with detailed room information and photos, delivered in a professional and polite manner.

"The room rates were only a few hundred thousand dong cheaper on online platforms to avoid suspicion," Ms. Huong said, adding that after marketing, the fan page included terms and conditions for bookings and requested a 50% deposit to reserve the room. However, Ms. Huong noticed irregularities in the included offers, such as three meals a day – rarely offered when booking – so she did not proceed with the transaction. A few days later, the fan page was taken down because it was fake.

The Marketing and Communications Manager of a leading global resort group with six resorts in Vietnam stated that the group had to deal with approximately 170 fake fan pages in Vietnam between February and April. They had to notify Meta's representative (Facebook's manager) in Singapore, wait a month for a response, submit legal documents to prove authenticity, and manually report each fake channel.

The resort posted a warning about a fake listing. Photo: Blue Diamond Retreat

"We receive a lot of customer complaints, fake channels are constantly being created, and when one channel is shut down, another appears. These fake channels are sophisticated, even faking blue verification badges," this person said.

Blue Diamond Retreat, a resort in Quang Binh, also announced on May 19th the discovery of a fake fan page with 7,900 followers, using similar names and images to impersonate the resort and solicit bookings and deposits. The resort warned guests that all booking information, promotions, and advice are only provided through the official website and channels.

Mr. Nguyen Hoang Thang, co-founder of the non-profit project "Anti-Fraud," stated that online tourism fraud in Vietnam is becoming increasingly complex and tends to increase during peak seasons. According to statistics from the Vietnam Cyber ​​Security Association, in 2024, online fraud in Vietnam caused losses of up to 18,900 billion VND. Fraudsters are becoming increasingly sophisticated, exploiting tourists' desire for cheap deals, lack of experience, and complacency to steal their money.

Current travel scams often revolve around creating fake fan pages impersonating major travel brands, hotels, and airlines. Many scammers run advertisements to reach users, offering tours, discounted air tickets, and hotel and flight packages at prices lower than the market rate.

Two forms of fraud involve requesting a deposit for a service and then stealing the money, blocking communication after the customer transfers the funds. Another type is sending fake links to steal personal information and OTP codes in order to hijack bank accounts. The channels most frequently exploited are Facebook (through fake advertisements and fan pages), Zalo (via private messages), and some via TikTok.

"Many travel fan pages even fake the blue checkmark (verified badge), making it easy for users to be misled," Mr. Thang said, adding that the blue checkmark does not guarantee a fan page is real and that information should always be carefully checked before trusting or interacting with it.

Mr. Thang pointed out three ways to distinguish between real and fake fanpages, including those with verified badges. First, check the information and activity history. Real channels have a clear brand name, a long posting history, professional content, and contact information that matches the official website. Fake fanpages are usually newly created, have superficial content or are prone to spelling errors, and have unclear contact information.

Additionally, find the fanpage through the official website, and avoid searching by name on Facebook, as fake fanpages often run ads to appear first.

Checking the fanpage history (page transparency) includes steps such as viewing the creation date, name change history, and administrator's country. Genuine fanpages rarely change names and have a clear history. Fake channels usually change their name recently or switch their purpose from another channel.

According to cybersecurity expert Nguyen Hung, tourists should be wary of search results on Google. "It's very common for scammers to use paid advertising (Google Ads) to get websites to the top of search results, and customers easily mistakenly access fraudulent websites," Mr. Hung said, adding that exchanging information on websites from Google search results and requesting transactions via Zalo offers no guarantee of safety.

According to vnexpress.net

Source: https://baohanam.com.vn/du-lich/lua-dao-dat-phong-qua-mang-ngay-cang-tinh-vi-165025.html