Faced with the recent situation of fraud and property appropriation on cyberspace in the tourism sector, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has just sent a document to the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism (VHTTDL), and the Department of Tourism of provinces and centrally-run cities.
According to Mr. Nguyen Trung Khanh - Director of the Vietnam National Tourism Administration, recently, the situation of fraud and property appropriation in the tourism sector, especially online booking fraud, has shown signs of increasing. Fraudsters use sophisticated and unpredictable tricks.
Some of the tricks include creating fake websites and fanpages of reputable tourism service businesses with many tricks of discounts, fake promotions and requiring deposits in advance... to appropriate people's money, negatively affecting the image of the tourism industry, causing public outrage.
Implementing the Prime Minister's Official Dispatch No. 139/CD-TTg dated December 23, 2024 on strengthening the prevention, suppression and handling of fraudulent activities of appropriating assets using high technology, in cyberspace; to continue to strengthen measures to prevent, suppress and handle fraudulent acts, protect the legitimate rights of tourists and the reputation of the tourism industry, raise the responsibility and awareness of tourism businesses as well as people and tourists, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism has just sent an official dispatch to the Department of Tourism Management of localities.
Accordingly, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recommends that the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism and the Department of Tourism of localities increase propaganda to tourism service businesses and people to understand new forms and tricks of fraud in the tourism sector; recommend that people carefully research information about tourism service providers in general and tourist accommodation establishments in particular before booking services and making payment transactions; and should only book services on official websites and fanpages of tourism service businesses provided by local tourism management agencies or through reputable service booking platforms.
The Department also requested 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 its authority; coordinate with competent authorities to regularly review and prevent fake websites and fanpages, and strictly handle subjects with fraudulent behavior.
Industry leaders requested local management departments to provide information on registered tourism service establishments in the area so that people and tourists can know and book services, and at the same time coordinate to fully update information on local tourism service establishments to the database system of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism for widespread and official announcement nationwide.
The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism requires local tourism service businesses to raise their sense of responsibility in protecting customers; regularly review and promptly detect information platforms and social networking sites that impersonate their tourism service businesses; proactively coordinate with competent authorities to promptly resolve and handle related cases; and not spread or take advantage of false information about tourism service businesses to attract tourists' attention.
In addition, strengthen the application of security measures, prevent intrusion and counterfeiting; provide information on official websites, fanpages, and social networking platforms to the local Department of Tourism to enhance identification information of official fanpages and websites and avoid counterfeiting.
Previously, the online community was abuzz with a post on social media about a female tourist (living in Hai Phong) who was scammed and lost a billion VND when booking a room at a resort in Ninh Binh. Specifically, the guest booked 2 rooms for 2 adults and 2 children, from January 31 to February 3 on a fake Facebook fanpage of Kenh Ga Island Resort (Gia Vien District, Ninh Binh). After exchanging back and forth, the female tourist decided on 2 rooms and deposited about 6.5 million VND. However, she was informed that she had transferred the wrong content, so the automatic system could not confirm the booking request. After that, this fake Facebook fanpage asked the female tourist to copy the code provided by the resort into the transfer content for the accountant to confirm.
At this time, the customer was asked to activate a VNPay account for himself and transfer money into it according to the syntax given by this employee to ensure safety. With the reason of transferring the wrong content, the customer continuously had to transfer money into the VNPay account with increasing amounts, from 39.5 million VND, 125.6 million VND, 379.6 million VND and finally 485.6 million VND. The total amount transferred was more than 1 billion VND. When the female tourist could not contact the resort, she realized she had been scammed.
Source: https://daidoanket.vn/canh-giac-lua-dao-trong-linh-vuc-du-lich-10299904.html
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