All kinds of tricks

Having been a victim of this type of scam, Ms. PTN (30 years old, residing in Hoa Hoi commune, Chau Thanh district) said that about 2 months ago, because she intended to travel to Quy Nhon (Binh Dinh province) for 3 days and 2 nights, she went on Facebook to find a hotel to book a room.

After researching, she found a hotel with the fanpage name APHQN (abbreviated) with 11,000 likes, 11,000 followers, beautiful, eye-catching hotel room advertising posts that attracted viewers, so she contacted them to book a room.

People should choose tour/room/airline ticket booking services from reputable and quality companies.

“I sent a direct message to the fanpage and the staff quoted a hotel room for 3 days and 2 nights for more than 3.2 million VND. They asked me to deposit 1 million VND in advance for the hotel to hold the room. Seeing that the fanpage was reputable, I did not doubt it at all and agreed to transfer the full payment of 3.2 million VND for the room,” said Ms. N.

However, when the transfer was successful, the subject texted that Ms. N had entered the wrong booking code, so the hotel booking was not successful.

The subject asked Ms. N to transfer the money again and write the correct content so that the system could confirm the successful booking, then the hotel would support refunding the amount she had transferred incorrectly.

The subject asked Ms. N to make friends with a person named TH on Facebook to get support for a refund. This person named H, who claimed to be the hotel's accountant, called and instructed Ms. N to access the banking application she was using to perform some operations to get back the money she had previously transferred incorrectly.

“I suspected fraud so I did not follow this person’s instructions. Immediately, the subject blocked me on Facebook. After that, I contacted the bank’s customer service department directly and was warned by the staff about the fraud and suggested that I go to the police to report the incident. Because the amount of money I was scammed was not much, I did not report it to the authorities but considered it a lesson to learn from,” said Ms. N.

Mr. MT (residing in Long Thanh Trung ward, Hoa Thanh town) said that he had previously gone online to find a cheap tour to Con Dao for his wife and him. When he visited fan pages providing tourism services, he noticed a post advertising a 3-day, 2-night Tay Ninh - Con Dao tour package for 3 million VND/person, including airfare and 3-star hotel.

The APHQN fanpage with many likes and followers attracted Ms. PTN to book a hotel room.

“Seeing the reasonable price and enthusiastic consultant, I planned to book a tour and made an appointment to transfer a 50% deposit the next day. After that, the subject continuously texted me urging me to transfer money to make a deposit. Seeing something strange, I refused to book the tour, then the subject blocked my Facebook account.

If you intend to travel, you need to choose services from reputable companies or book through reputable travel apps such as Traveloka, Agoda... I also hope that the authorities will take strict measures to handle these fraudulent subjects" - Mr. T said.

Faced with the increasing situation of fraud and property appropriation in the tourism sector, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recently sent an official dispatch to local tourism management agencies requesting timely management and prevention of fake tourism websites and fanpages.

Accordingly, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recommends that agencies increase propaganda to tourism service businesses and people to understand new forms and tricks of fraud in the tourism sector; promptly inspect and handle violations according to the provisions of law; promptly receive and resolve related petitions and reflections from citizens according to their authority.

The Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recommends that people carefully research information about tourism service providers in general and accommodation establishments in particular before booking services and making payment transactions; they should only book services on official websites and fanpages of tourism service providers provided by local management agencies or through reputable service booking platforms...

Lawyer Tran Thi Hanh of the Tay Ninh Province Bar Association said that recently, the situation of fraud in the tourism sector, especially the form of fraud in booking hotels, airline tickets, and cheap tours online, has become increasingly complicated. Although the authorities have continuously warned about fraud tricks in cyberspace, many victims have still fallen into the trap.

The subjects posted articles advertising cheap tours and hotel rooms on the internet and social networks with many additional benefits, asking victims to transfer deposits, thereby appropriating the money.

The subjects fake the website/fanpage of a reputable travel company, fake photos of receipts and payment invoices of customers, then ask the victims to transfer money to pay for the tour. After the customer pays, the subjects will block contact and erase all traces.

The subjects even post articles advertising foreign tourist visa services, promising a high success rate and a 100% refund if the visa is not granted. After the victim transfers the payment or part of the payment, the subjects will let the victim fill in the application form, complete the documents... and then use the reason that the victim did not fill in the form to appropriate the property.

According to lawyer Tran Thi Hanh, acts constituting the crime of fraud and appropriation of property will be considered for criminal prosecution as prescribed in Article 174 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017). Depending on the amount of money appropriated, different penalties will be imposed, the highest penalty being life imprisonment.

Acts of using computer networks, telecommunications networks or electronic means to appropriate property will be considered for criminal prosecution as prescribed in Article 290 of the 2015 Penal Code (amended and supplemented in 2017).

“To avoid being scammed, people need to carefully research information when choosing travel packages, and should choose tour/room booking services from reputable, quality travel companies or applications.

People need to be vigilant when receiving invitations to buy travel packages at very cheap prices, especially when travel agencies require a deposit to hold a seat. If possible, direct payment should be made.

In case of suspicion of fraudulent property appropriation, people need to promptly notify the police for reception and resolution" - lawyer Tran Thi Hanh shared.

Migration

Source: https://baotayninh.vn/muon-hinh-van-trang-chieu-tro-a187750.html