Accommodation reservation fraud is taking place one after another in Nha Trang, a famous resort in southern Vietnam. It is a method of attracting tourists by creating fake information pages for four- and five-star hotels and inducing them to pay for their accommodation in advance to intercept them.
According to local media such as VN Express, a tourist living in Hanoi, Vietnam, tried to book a hotel in Nya-chan where he and 11 friends would stay in mid-August. After entering the hotel information page he encountered on social media, he consulted with an employee through the contact information page here and transferred 13 million dongs for hotel accommodation. However, in reality, the hotel was not booked and the contact information on the page disappeared.
Usually, hotels require customers to pay for their accommodation on the day of check-in. However, the fake site agent appears to have encouraged the tourists to pay in advance for the accommodation, saying that they offer special services.
Local police said they received nearly 100 similar reports of damage recently. The method is similar. Scammers create fake pages that mimic social media pages of famous hotels and resorts such as Havana Nyachang Hotel and Vinpearl Resort, attract tourists, and hang up on them when they receive money.
Victims who have already paid for their accommodation will only learn that their name is not on the reservation list after they go to the hotel thinking they have been booked. They are often blocked or unresponsive even if they call their known contact number. The damage is also considerable. They say they have removed up to tens of millions of homes per person.
Investigation authorities warn against fake pages. However, it seems difficult for foreigners to distinguish between fake and fake pages.
There is a way to avoid this fraud by using the Online Travel Agency (OTA).
However, it is not convenient here either. According to the Korea Consumer Agency, a total of 2,110 OTA-related damage relief cases were received and processed from 2021 to August. The damage caused by contract and cancellation penalty issues, which incur excessive penalty for canceling or changing reservations, was the most at 1,073 cases (50.9%). The damage caused by withdrawal of subscription reached 412 cases (19.5%) and 300 cases (14.2%) of contract failure.
SALLY LEE
US ASIA JOURNAL
