Risk of 'falling into the trap' of AI fraud in tourism

(PLVN) - Technology applications have long been widely applied by the tourism industry to connect passengers with destinations and travel agencies. Besides the convenience, there are still bad guys using technology to scam tourists. Currently, with the development of AI (artificial intelligence), scams are becoming more and more sophisticated.

Difficult to distinguish between real and fake

With just a few weeks to go until the 2025 summer tourist season, this year, the Vietnamese tourism industry promises to have many unique and attractive tourism products. In addition to the positive signals of the 2025 summer tourist season, there are concerns about the problem of tourism fraud that has been and is becoming increasingly complicated.

A few weeks ago, on the occasion of Hung Kings' Commemoration Day (10th day of the third lunar month), a female tourist in Ho Chi Minh City was scammed out of about 6 million VND after booking a room on a Facebook fanpage. Specifically, before the holiday, she saw an advertisement for a luxury hotel in a famous tourist destination offering a 20% discount, including a breakfast and dinner buffet. Without hesitation, she booked a room for her whole family at a total cost of 5.4 million VND. When the travel date approached, she confirmed with the hotel and discovered that the website she booked was fake.

Nowadays, the tricks 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 agencies and ticket offices.

Recently, there was the story of Mr. Nguyen H.Th, a Hanoi resident, who lost a total of 116 million VND after many transfers to receive commissions through product reviews on a travel website. According to the records, the image of the fake website created by the subjects is identical to the official website, the only difference is the domain name with an additional character that is very difficult to recognize. This makes it impossible for Mr. Th and many other victims to distinguish, and thus willing to deposit money to participate in performing the tasks of evaluating the quality of tours.

The subject also sent Mr. Th a picture of a tax payment confirmation document provided by a reputable travel company, stating full company information, tax payment amount, and total amount received after payment. The document had the signature and seal of the company director, so he trusted and transferred the money. After the first 1-2 times receiving the commission as promised to create trust, the subject used many tricks to force him to deposit a larger amount of money.

AI technology makes it much more difficult for people to distinguish between real and fake than before. (Illustration photo - Source: Genk)

Recently, Hanoi City Police as well as news agencies and newspapers have issued many warnings to tourists and travel agencies about bad guys taking advantage of technology to profit during the peak tourist season. From familiar tricks such as selling cheap combos, to using fake Fanpages to scam billions of dong from tourists. In particular, Deepfake technology is creating extremely sophisticated fraud risks for tourists.

By collecting images and videos : Search for images and videos from the victim's social media accounts or other sources; create fake videos: use AI technology to merge faces and voices, create fake video calls of relatives/friends; trick money transfer: During the call, the subject gives urgent reasons such as accidents, debt, or need for financial support during travel, requesting immediate money transfer to the account provided by them.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has issued Official Letter No. 253/CDLQGVN-QLLT to the Departments of Culture, Sports and Tourism, and Tourism Departments of provinces and centrally-run cities on preventing, stopping, and handling fraudulent activities of appropriating assets on the internet in the tourism sector. The document of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism clearly stated that recently, the situation of fraud and appropriation of assets in the field of online tourism has been increasing, negatively affecting the image of the tourism industry, causing public outrage.

Provinces and localities need to strengthen inspection and examination work, promptly detect and handle violations according to the provisions of law; promptly receive and resolve petitions and related feedback from citizens according to their authority; coordinate with competent authorities to regularly review and prevent fake websites and fanpages, and strictly handle subjects with fraudulent behavior.

There is a need for programs to “popularize” AI to the community.

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

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

However, in addition to the advantages brought by AI, there are still shortcomings. For example, bad guys take advantage of AI to defraud customers, leading to losses and damages for both customers and travel companies. Therefore, in the face of the increasingly technologically advanced society, there needs to be a solution to improve people's knowledge about AI.

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

AI, especially generative AI (GenAI), is creating unprecedented breakthroughs, opening up limitless possibilities for humanity, supporting many different industries, including tourism. The “intelligence” of AI is becoming a tool for scammers to exploit. Detecting real and fake AI is becoming increasingly difficult, currently it is impossible to use the naked eye to evaluate fraudulent travel websites and legitimate travel websites. Likewise, Deepfake technology is creating voices and video images that are as credible as real people.

It is necessary to popularize knowledge about AI to the community to ensure safety when traveling. (Illustration photo: PV)

Sharing with reporters of Vietnam Law Newspaper, Ms. Vu Thi Bach Duong, an expert of Tran Viet Tourism Company Limited, Hanoi branch, said that the development of technology is both an advantage and a challenge for the tourism industry. For example, nowadays, tourists can use apps and applications to book airline tickets, restaurants, and hotels quickly, conveniently and at good prices. Thanks to AI, businesses are optimizing many activities such as booking management tasks, adjusting hotel room prices in real time, and forecasting the number of visitors to a tourist destination, all of which can be effectively handled by AI. This helps minimize risks due to market fluctuations for businesses.

On the contrary, AI is currently creating many impersonations and scams, so travel and tourism companies and their partners are making efforts to improve network security, ensuring the safety of passenger data and information. However, in addition to travel and tourism companies, businesses, and accommodation areas strengthening security in cyberspace, customers need to be more vigilant and learn some basic knowledge about technology and AI to ensure safety when traveling.

Huong Ngoc

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