The risk of falling victim to AI scams in the travel industry.

(PLVN) - Technology applications have long been widely used in the tourism industry to connect passengers with destinations and travel companies. However, alongside the convenience, there are still those who use technology to scam tourists. Currently, with the development of AI (artificial intelligence), scams are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

It's difficult to distinguish between genuine and fake.

With only a few weeks left until the start of the 2025 summer tourist season, Vietnam's tourism industry promises many unique and attractive tourism products this year. Alongside these positive signs for the 2025 summer season, there are also concerns about the growing and increasingly complex problem of tourism fraud.

A few weeks ago, during the Hung Kings Commemoration Day (10th day of the 3rd lunar month), a female tourist in Ho Chi Minh City was scammed out of approximately 6 million VND after booking a room through a Facebook fan page. Specifically, before the holiday, she saw an advertisement for a luxury hotel in a popular tourist destination offering a 20% discount, including breakfast and dinner buffets. Without hesitation, she booked a room for her whole family at a total cost of 5.4 million VND. Closer to her travel date, she confirmed with the hotel and discovered that the website she used was fake.

Nowadays, the tactics of high-tech scammers have become more sophisticated thanks to AI. With just a few basic commands, AI can create travel websites that are almost identical to the websites of reputable travel companies and ticket offices.

Recently, there was the story of Mr. Nguyen H.Th, a resident of Hanoi, who lost a total of 116 million VND after making multiple bank transfers to receive commissions for reviewing products on a travel website. According to reports, the fake website created by the perpetrators looked exactly like the official website; the only difference was the domain name, which had an extra character that was very difficult to distinguish. This made it impossible for Mr. Th, as well as many other victims, to tell the difference, thus readily depositing money to participate in reviewing the quality of the tour packages.

The scammer also sent Mr. Th an image of a tax payment confirmation document provided by a reputable travel company, containing full company information, the amount of tax paid, and the total amount received after payment. The document bore the signature and seal of the company director, which is why Mr. Th trusted it and transferred the money. After receiving the promised commission once or twice to build trust, the scammer used various tricks to force him to deposit larger sums of money.

AI technology has made it much more difficult for people to distinguish between real and fake products than before. (Illustrative image - Source: Genk)

Recently, the Hanoi City Police and various news agencies have issued numerous warnings to tourists and travel companies about unscrupulous individuals exploiting technology to profit during peak tourist season. These tactics range from familiar schemes like selling cheap travel packages to using fake Facebook pages to scam tourists out of billions of dong. In particular, Deepfake technology is creating extremely sophisticated scams targeting tourists.

By collecting images and videos : Searching for images and videos from the victim's social media accounts or other sources; creating fake videos: Using AI technology to splice faces and voices, creating fake video calls impersonating relatives/friends; scamming people into transferring money: During the call, the perpetrator gives urgent reasons such as an accident, debt, or needing financial assistance for travel, requesting immediate money transfers to accounts they provide.

The Vietnam National Tourism Administration has issued Official Letter No. 253/CDLQGVN-QLLT to the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Departments of Tourism of provinces and centrally-administered cities regarding the prevention, suppression, and handling of online fraud and property appropriation in the tourism sector. The document from the Vietnam National Tourism Administration clearly states that in recent times, the situation of online fraud and property appropriation in the tourism sector has been increasing, negatively impacting the image of the tourism industry and causing public outrage.

Provinces and localities need to strengthen inspection and supervision work, promptly detect and handle violations according to the law; promptly receive and resolve relevant letters and complaints from citizens within their authority; coordinate with functional agencies to regularly review and block fake websites and fanpages, and at the same time strictly handle those who engage in fraudulent activities.

There is a need for programs to "popularize" AI among the community.

In fact, AI technology is creating a breakthrough for Vietnam's tourism industry. From optimizing the visitor experience to improving management efficiency and product development, AI is gradually becoming an indispensable tool for the tourism sector.

In Vietnam, many tourism businesses have begun applying AI to their services. BestPrice Travel is one of the pioneering tourism businesses in applying AI in product development.

However, alongside the advantages offered by AI, there are still drawbacks. For example, malicious actors exploit AI to scam customers, leading to losses and damages for both customers and travel companies. Therefore, given the increasingly technologically advanced state of society, solutions are needed to improve people's knowledge of AI.

Currently, there are AI courses being supported by ministries and agencies to help people disseminate knowledge about AI free of charge. Most recently, at the launch of the "Artificial Intelligence for the Community" (AI for all) program by the National Innovation Center (NIC) in collaboration with Intel Corporation, Deputy Minister of Finance Nguyen Thi Bich Ngoc stated that in the context of rapidly developing AI technology, a particularly important and urgent requirement is to quickly disseminate basic knowledge about artificial intelligence to the entire population in the most understandable way, according to international standards.

AI, especially generative AI (Gen AI), is creating unprecedented breakthroughs, opening up limitless possibilities for humanity and supporting many different industries, including tourism. However, AI's "intelligence" is becoming a tool for scammers to profit. Detecting the authenticity of AI-generated content is becoming increasingly difficult; it's now impossible to distinguish between fraudulent and legitimate travel websites with the naked eye. Similarly, Deepfake technology is creating voices and video images that are indistinguishable from real people.

It is necessary to disseminate knowledge about AI to the community to ensure safety when traveling. (Illustrative image: PV)

Speaking to a reporter from the Vietnam Law Newspaper, Ms. Vu Thi Bach Duong, a specialist at Tran Viet Tourism Co., Ltd., Hanoi branch, said that technological development is both an advantage and a challenge for the tourism industry. For example, tourists can now use apps to book flights, restaurants, and hotels quickly and conveniently at good prices. Thanks to AI, businesses are optimizing many operations such as managing bookings, adjusting hotel room prices in real time, and forecasting visitor numbers to tourist destinations – all of which can be handled effectively by AI. This helps minimize risks from market fluctuations for businesses.

Conversely, AI is currently creating many cases of impersonation and fraud, so travel companies and their partners are striving to improve cybersecurity and ensure the safety of passenger data and information. However, in addition to travel companies, businesses, and accommodations strengthening their cybersecurity measures, customers need to be more vigilant and learn some basic knowledge about technology and AI to ensure their safety while traveling.

Huong Ngoc

Source: https://baophapluat.vn/nguy-co-roi-bay-ai-lua-dao-trong-du-lich-post545852.html