The "cheap travel deals" scam and how to recognize it
According to a report from the Department of Information Security, property appropriation fraud in the form of "cheap travel combos" is one of the 24 most common forms of fraud as of the first half of 2023. So what to do? To recognize and avoid scams [...] from The "cheap travel deals" scam and how to recognize it
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Editor
schedule03/07/2023
According to a report from the Information Security Department, property appropriation fraud in the form of "cheap travel combos" is one of 24 most common forms of fraud as of the first half of 2023. So how to recognize and avoid this scam? Let's learn more about Anti-Fraud (CLĐ) through the article below.
I. Current status of the "cheap travel combo" scam
After more than 2 years of being affected by the COVID-19 Pandemic, Vietnamese tourism began to reopen from around March 2022. By summer, domestic and foreign tourism demand skyrocketed, leading to A series of tricks that prey on customer psychology to defraud and misappropriate assets.
In June 2022, Vietnam's tourism industry in particular and Vietnamese public opinion in general "stirred up" with information about a scam that caused a group of 144 tourists to have trouble when arriving at the airport and then discover it. There are currently no tickets available. What's more remarkable is that many people also encounter similar situations.
Although customers are constantly warned, this trick continues to this day. Fraudsters constantly change their tactics to lure victims into traps, successfully appropriating a large amount of money.
II. Identifying characteristics and fraud tactics
Here are some identifying characteristics of this scam:
Sell tours and hotel rooms at bargain prices
Fraudsters will post articles advertising the sale of tours and cheap hotel rooms on the Internet and social networks with many accompanying benefits.
The victim will be offered transfer deposits (from 30-50% value) to deposit tours and hotel rooms
From there, the scammer will appropriate the deposit amount.
Providing visa services with a high success rate
Fraudsters will post articles advertising visa services for foreign travel, promising a high success rate and refunding 100% amount if a visa is not obtained.
After the victim transfers money to pay the cost or part of the cost, the subjects will let the victim fill in the declaration information and complete the dossier...
The scammer will then use the excuse that the victim declared missing information and will not return the money.
Create fake website/fanpage
Fake the website/fanpage of a reputable travel company, fake photos of receipts and payment invoices, and ask the victim to transfer money to pay for tour expenses.
After customers transfer money to pay for travel services, the subjects will block contact and erase all traces
Fake Social Network accounts
Fake/hijack social network users' accounts, contact relatives in your friends list saying they are stuck while traveling abroad and need money immediately.
Impersonating airline ticket agents
Subjects impersonate airline ticket agents, create their own websites and social networking sites, with link addresses and designs similar to channels of official airlines or agents, then advertise at high rates. The price is very attractive compared to the general level to attract customers.
If a customer contacts them, they will make a reservation for a plane ticket, send a reservation code as information, and request payment from the customer. After receiving payment, the subjects did not issue airline tickets and cut off contact.
Because the booking code has not been issued on the flight ticket, it will automatically cancel after a period of time and the customer will only know this when arriving at the airport.
III. Prevention
To avoid being scammed by the tricks mentioned above, you SHOULD:
Find out information carefully when choosing travel packages
Choose tour booking, room booking, and flight booking services from reputable companies or through travel apps
Ask the service provider to show you the business license, documents, practice certificate... of the travel and tourism company.
Besides, you should especially WARNING When:
Receive offers to buy travel packages with the price is too cheap (30-50% cheaper than the general market price)
The travel agency requires a deposit to reserve a seat. If possible, you should make the payment in person
At the same time, you should pay attention to signs of fake websites through website names and domain names. Usually the names of fake websites will be similar to the names of real websites but will have some additional or missing characters. Fake domain names often use strange extensions such as .cc, .xyz, .tk...
In particular, for social networking sites (Fanpages) that sell and promote travel packages, especially cheap travel packages and cheap airline tickets, you should:
Choose social networking sites with green ticks (registered accounts) or choose reputable social networking sites where you know the seller's information clearly.
Confirm room and flight booking information to promptly detect signs of fraud
If you detect fraudulent behavior, report it to the nearest police station for instructions on how to resolve it
IV. Identify fraudulent websites and accounts
When you are asked to book a tour, airline ticket or hotel, and pay online through a website or transfer money directly to an individual, please be ESPECIALLY CAREFUL and check the reliability of the websites and this account.
1. Identify fraudulent websites
There are many ways to recognize fraudulent websites, you can apply some of the following:
Recognize scams by ScamAdviser – one of the reputable websites in the world that analyzes the safety or fraud level of other websites
Recognize by VirusTotal – a website that combines multiple antivirus software and is an online scanning tool to check for viruses that regular antivirus software may miss
Step 2: Navigate to ChongLuaDao's Data Bank section
Step 3: Enter “tour” or “travel” in the search bar
Step 4: Wait for Anti-Phishing data bank to display impersonating websites
In addition, you can directly enter the website link in the search bar to check.
2. Recognize fraudulent bank accounts
Although we cannot be sure that the 100% bank account you are asked to transfer money to is not a scam. But you can look it up in the list Fraudulent bank account belong to Network trust to know if that account is on the scam list or not.
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