Tourists visit Buu Long Tourist Area (Bien Hoa City). Illustration photo: Lo Van Hop

Understanding the needs of tourists who often book tours and accommodation for travel companies, areas and destinations on the Internet, through social media channels such as Facebook, Zalo, TikTok, etc., scammers have created fake pages to invite and "draw" virtual promotional programs to deceive customers. Once they have created trust with customers, scammers ask customers to transfer deposits to appropriate them.

Impersonating tourist areas, spots, and businesses to commit fraud

Recently, on the occasion of the Hung Kings' Commemoration Day (the 10th day of the 3rd lunar month), some tourists who went online to search for the Facebook page of the eco-tourism destination Panorama Glamping (in La Nga commune, Dinh Quan district) to book a room found a fake Facebook page. To gain trust from customers, the scammers used a Facebook page with a blue tick to approach customers. After being consulted and instructed to deposit a room fee, the customers still did not realize they had been scammed, until they arrived to check in and realized the entire account was fake. The scam resulted in 7 cases of customers being robbed of more than 25 million VND.

To warn tourists, Mr. Tran Thien Phu, Director of Panorama Glamping, widely warned on official social media channels, and at the same time guided customers when booking online. Mr. Phu shared that recently, the situation of impersonating tourist areas, spots, units, and organizations on Facebook, Zalo platforms... has been quite common. Fraudsters often use Facebook pages with blue ticks that are rented or purchased, to create trust with customers, causing confusion about the official page. This is an organized fraud, directly threatening customers and affecting the reputation and prestige of businesses.

Identifying fraudulent acts, the Vietnam National Tourism Administration has warned that scammers have signs of behavior such as: subjects forging photos of receipts, payment invoices and company seals to deceive customers; after customers transfer money to pay for tourism services, the subjects will block communication and erase all traces; create or buy accounts and groups on social networks to have high interaction, creating trust for those who approach.

Be careful when booking tours and tickets on social networking sites.

Not only in Dong Nai, the situation of tourist fraud in other provinces and cities has also increased recently, causing the authorities to speak up.

Hanoi City Police recommends that people carefully research information when choosing online accommodation booking services; they should choose travel agencies with full legal status or reputable hotel and room booking sites.

To prevent the above situation, the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism recommends that localities increase propaganda to tourism service businesses and people to understand new forms and tricks of fraud in the tourism sector. It is recommended that people carefully research information about tourism service providers in general and tourist accommodation establishments in particular before booking services and making payment transactions; they should only book services on official websites and fanpages of tourism service businesses provided by local tourism management agencies or through reputable service booking platforms.

The Department of Tourism requires localities to focus on providing information on registered tourism service establishments in the area so that people and tourists can know and book services. At the same time, coordinate to fully update information on local tourism service establishments to the database system of the Vietnam National Administration of Tourism for public announcement nationwide.

Dong Nai currently has 22 tourist areas and spots in operation. In recent years, Dong Nai tourism industry has developed quite strongly with some outstanding areas and spots.

Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism Le Thi Ngoc Loan said that in order to maintain service quality, security, order and safety for tourists during the holidays, the department requested the management boards of tourist areas, destinations and tourism service establishments in the province to proactively develop plans and solutions to serve tourists during the April 30 and May 1 holidays.

Ngoc Lien

Source: https://baodongnai.com.vn/kinh-te/202504/canh-giac-cac-chieu-lua-dao-du-lich-le-he-9cc06ea/