"Close the deal" cheap
Thoa Tran, a tourist in Hanoi, just shared a story about being scammed into buying cheap airline tickets.
Accordingly, she saw many advertisements for cheap airline tickets on Facebook, and it was difficult to book 0 VND tickets directly from the airline's promotional programs. She decided to learn more and try booking through the websites advertised online.
"After booking, I didn't plan to transfer money right away, I asked this person and that person to see if this page had ever been purchased before... I also planned to go to the address listed on Facebook to check.
When I called the hotline to check, a female voice answered, telling me to just transfer the money, because the company does business honestly and does not scam anyone. This female employee also said that a sales person would support me," said Ms. Thoa.
After that, she received a message from a personal Zalo account asking her to transfer money to issue a ticket. However, after transferring more than 2 million VND, this person asked her to wait for another staff member to assist.
Not long after, she received another online notice about buying insurance for VND3,550,000. Then, another employee of the company called, asking her to buy insurance because it was her first time buying on the company's website.
Realizing that things were not right, Ms. Thoa asked about the company's regulations and decided not to transfer the money. Unable to continue defrauding her, this person cut off contact and blocked her phone number.
Talking to Lao Dong, Ms. Thoa said she went online to find out how to submit an online report. However, on Facebook, there are also many fanpages impersonating the police, defrauding people of their personal information. When asking about the official website to submit the report, Ms. Thoa discovered that she could not log in to this page.
Finally, the female tourist expressed her disappointment at being scammed by scammers. At the same time, Ms. Thoa also sent a warning and some phone numbers of the scam line so that tourists can avoid making the same mistake.
Beware of tricks
The closer it gets to Tet, the more websites and scammers selling airline tickets and travel combos become active.
In August, Tuyen Hoa District Police (Quang Binh) received a complaint from a citizen about being scammed by a scammer named H.T.L (born in 2007, residing in Kim Duong commune, Ung Hoa district, Hanoi) when buying airline tickets through social networks on July 30, 2024, for more than 9 million VND.
H.T.L created a Facebook page called “Smile Trip” to sell airline tickets, posting information like a professional airline ticket agency page to attract customers.
When someone texted to buy a ticket, L. tricked the customer into transferring money to pay for the ticket, then blocked contact and appropriated the money. Initial determination of the amount of money in H.T.L's personal account was more than 3 billion VND.
Ms. Dam Thanh Nhan, an airline ticket retailer in Hung Yen, said that there are many cases of fraud in buying airline tickets and travel combos, mainly taking advantage of tourists' desire for cheap deals.
"The customers who are scammed are usually older people who rarely buy tickets or travel combos and do not know much about booking services online. Many people are willing to pay a portion, or even the entire price, in advance to scammers without finding out more information," Ms. Nhan shared.
After transferring money, the victim's contact number is often blocked. It is very difficult and time-consuming to find out the background of these people, the possibility of getting money back is almost zero. Because of this, genuine online sales agents are affected, losing trust in customers, making it difficult to conduct transactions.
According to Ms. Nhan, to avoid being scammed, tourists should go to familiar agents or buy products on the official website of the company or travel agency.
"If you book through a website, you need to make sure the domain name is correct, the website has full information, and is not a "ghost" company. During the transaction, request to receive flight ticket information via email to ensure the order is clear, and the information is sent from an email with an email address that matches the company's website," said this agent.
Faced with this situation, Hanoi City Police and many other provinces and cities across the country have continuously warned people to be careful when booking cheap travel combos online to avoid losing money.
When detecting fraudulent behavior, people need to report it to the nearest police station for guidance on how to handle it.
In addition, internet users need to be cautious of information pages impersonating the Ministry of Public Security Electronic Information Portal, posting many videos and articles with warnings about methods and tricks of property fraud; at the same time, they also include advertisements for services such as: "receiving documents", "support to recover suspended money", "recovering scammed money"... The scammers commit to only collect money after people have recovered the scammed money.
The Ministry of Public Security recommends absolutely not to listen to or contact websites, fanpages, or social media accounts that advertise services such as "receiving documents", "supporting the recovery of suspended money", "recovering fraudulent money"... on cyberspace.
Do not transfer money to the above subjects for guidance and to complete the application.
Currently, the Ministry of Public Security and related units do not coordinate or authorize any unit to guide or receive people's records about fraud and property appropriation cases via social networks.
People need to go directly to the police to report or send petitions and letters by post about fraud cases of which they are victims to be received and resolved.
Previously, the Ministry of Information and Communications (TT&TT) recommended that when people need to buy airline tickets, they should book directly through the airline's official website or call the hotline directly if they are not proficient in booking tickets online.
Before making any transaction, people need to carefully research and confirm the ticket code information and check its validity, and ask the airline staff to check the flight itinerary and passenger information. In particular, they should not transact through third parties or agents when they are not sure about the quality and reputation.
