Beware of holiday and summer travel scams.

The tourism industry is preparing to serve tourists during the biggest and longest peak travel periods of the year, namely the April 30th and May 1st holidays, as well as the 2025 summer vacation period from the end of May to August. This is a time when many individuals impersonate tourism companies and destinations to scam customers online.

Tourists visiting Buu Long Tourist Area (Bien Hoa City). (Illustrative photo: Lo Van Hop)

Taking advantage of tourists' need to book tours and accommodations through travel companies and destinations online, via social media channels such as Facebook, Zalo, and TikTok, scammers have created fake pages to entice and "create" fictitious promotional programs to deceive customers. Once they have gained the trust of customers, the scammers request deposit money to steal it.

Impersonating tourist areas, attractions, or businesses to commit fraud.

Recently, during the Hung Kings Commemoration Day (10th day of the 3rd lunar month), several tourists searching online for the Facebook page of the Panorama Glamping eco-tourism destination (in La Nga commune, Dinh Quan district) to book rooms found a fake Facebook page. To gain the trust of customers, the scam group used a verified Facebook page to approach them. After being advised and instructed to deposit money for rooms, customers did not realize they had been scammed until they arrived to check in and discovered that the entire account was fake. The scam resulted in 7 customers being defrauded of over 25 million VND.

To warn tourists, Mr. Tran Thien Phu, Director of Panorama Glamping, issued a widespread warning on official social media channels and provided guidance to customers when booking online. Mr. Phu shared that recently, the impersonation of tourist areas, attractions, and organizations on platforms like Facebook and Zalo has become quite common. Scammers often use verified Facebook pages, either rented or purchased, to gain customer trust and create the illusion that they are official pages. This is an organized scam that directly threatens customers and damages the reputation and prestige of businesses.

Dong Nai currently has 22 active tourist areas and attractions. Regarding tourist accommodation, two new hotels have been invested in and put into operation: Song Trang Boutique Hotel (Long Thanh district) and Queen Rose Hotel (Bien Hoa city), with a total of 92 rooms. To date, the entire province has 136 tourist accommodation establishments with nearly 3,800 rooms. Dong Nai's tourism strengths lie in ecotourism, forests, and lakes, which are of great interest to tourists during the April 30th holiday.

To identify fraudulent activities, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration has warned that fraudsters exhibit the following behaviors: they forge photos of receipts and invoices along with company seals to deceive customers; after customers transfer money to pay for tourism services, the fraudsters block communication and erase all traces; and they create or purchase accounts and groups on social media to gain high interaction and build trust with those they approach.

Be cautious when booking tours and tickets on social media sites.

Not only in Dong Nai, but also in other provinces and cities, scams targeting tourists have been increasing recently, prompting authorities to take action.

Hanoi City Police advise citizens to carefully research information when choosing online hotel booking services; they should choose travel companies with full legal status or reputable hotel and hotel booking websites.

To prevent this situation, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration recommends that localities strengthen communication with tourism service businesses and the public to raise awareness about new forms and methods of fraud in the tourism sector. People are advised to carefully research information about tourism service providers in general and accommodation establishments in particular before booking services or making payments; they should only book services through official websites and fan pages of tourism service businesses provided by local tourism management agencies or through reputable booking platforms.

The Vietnam National Tourism Administration requests that localities focus on providing information on registered tourism service businesses in their areas so that residents and tourists can be aware of and book services. At the same time, they should coordinate in updating complete information on tourism service providers in their localities onto the Vietnam National Tourism Administration's database system for widespread and official publication nationwide.

Dong Nai currently has 22 operational tourist areas and attractions. In recent years, Dong Nai's tourism industry has experienced significant growth, with several areas and attractions standing out.

According to Le Thi Ngoc Loan, Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism, in order to maintain service quality, security, and safety for tourists during the holiday, the department requests the management boards of tourist areas and attractions, and tourism service businesses in the province to proactively develop plans and strategies to serve tourists during the April 30th and May 1st holidays.

Ngoc Lien

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202504/canh-giac-cac-chieu-lua-dao-du-lich-le-he-9cc06ea/