Beware of scams when booking homestays and hotels online

(To Quoc) - Recently, authorities have continuously detected and received reports of fraud in the form of online hotel bookings. The media has also continuously issued warnings for people to avoid, however, scammers often change their methods with increasingly sophisticated tricks.

Scammed out of over 1 billion VND when depositing to rent a room

Recently, Facebook account Nguyen Tien Phuc shared on social media the incident where his acquaintance was scammed out of more than one billion VND when booking a room at the fanpage "Minawa Kenh ga Resort & Spa Ninh Binh".

According to the post, the guest contacted the Facebook page Minawa Kenh Ga in Ninh Binh (with a blue tick) to book a room for two adults and two children from January 31 to February 3 at the Minawa Kenh Ga resort in Ninh Binh.

After messaging the resort's fanpage, guests were advised by staff that weekend room rates start at 2.9 million VND, and holidays and Tet start at 3.6 million VND for Twin Room.

The post about the scam of appropriating more than 1 billion VND when booking a room on the fanpage "Minawa Kenh ga Resort & Spa Ninh Binh" received a lot of interaction on social networks.

During the discussion, the guest confirmed the room and transferred a deposit of 6.5 million VND to the resort for 2 rooms. However, the resort reported that the guest had sent the wrong transfer and asked the guest to copy the code provided by the resort into the transfer content for the accounting department to confirm.

After many consecutive transfers, the customer was reported to have made incorrect transactions. The following times, the customer was tricked into transferring more than VND39.5 million, VND125.6 million, VND379.6 million and VND485.6 million. The total amount transferred was more than VND1 billion. Finally, the customer could not contact the resort before realizing that he had been tricked and reported it to the local police.

Mr. Bui Van Manh, Director of the Ninh Binh Province Department of Tourism, said that the Department has received information that tourists booked rooms on a fake fanpage of an accommodation facility in the province and were scammed out of more than 1 billion VND and is coordinating with relevant agencies to verify and clarify the matter.

A representative of Minawa Kenh Ga Resort & Spa Ninh Binh (Ninh Binh) also said that many travel partners had informed them about a tourist being scammed of more than 1 billion VND after booking a room through a fanpage bearing the company's name. This person confirmed that this fanpage was fake and not his media channel.

The resort representative also said that they had reported the incident to the local authorities and the Ninh Binh Provincial Department of Tourism, asking for support in handling the issue of the "official" fanpage being faked for the purpose of illegal profiteering.

Be vigilant and research carefully when booking online.

Previously, Ninh Binh Provincial Police issued a warning about the trick of impersonating reputable accommodation establishments to defraud and appropriate property.

According to Ninh Binh Provincial Police, in the context of strong development of information technology, booking rooms at accommodation service establishments such as hotels, motels, homestays... online is becoming more and more popular because of its convenience and speed for tourists...

However, taking advantage of the situation, some people have used tricks to defraud and appropriate the property of tourists who need to stay by creating fake social networking sites of hotels, resorts, and homestays in order to appropriate the property of tourists...

Tourists need to be extremely vigilant against online booking scams.

Accordingly, scammers will create websites, fanpages... with interfaces similar to those of reputable hotels, homestays, resorts..., using hotline numbers to contact and advise tourists and send many beautiful pictures, with comments from other customers to increase the level of prestige to create trust with tourists...

After gaining the trust of tourists, the subject will ask tourists to transfer a deposit in advance with the reason that the hotel or motel is overloaded, if they do not book in advance, they will not be able to keep a room. When the tourists, due to lack of vigilance and precaution, transfer a deposit to the subject or pay for the room or food to the subject, they will cut off contact with the tourists...

According to Ninh Binh Provincial Police, to avoid being scammed in the above form, before choosing to book a hotel, resort, homestay, etc., tourists need to carefully research information, choose a travel service provider or book available travel rooms on applications, and be extremely wary of invitations to book rooms at very cheap prices, 20%-50% lower than market prices.

After checking the contact information, you need to carefully study the booking and cancellation policy; ask the hotel to send you the booking confirmation information; you can also ask the service provider to show you the local business license...

In addition to the involvement of authorities in investigating and handling the above cases, tourism accommodation service businesses should also increase the provision of official information about their businesses widely on mass media and social networking sites so that tourists can know and contact to book rooms or use other services. At the same time, when detecting fake websites, fanpages, etc., it is necessary to immediately report to the authorities for timely prevention and handling./.

Source: https://toquoc.vn/canh-giac-truoc-chieu-tro-lua-dao-dat-phong-homestay-khach-san-qua-mang-20250206095114903.htm