Beware of tour scams

As Vietnam's tourism recovers, scams are also appearing frequently on social networking sites.

Recently, on travel groups, there have been posts accusing tour operators and agents of not paying their bills or individuals of inviting people to form mountain climbing groups to make a profit, amounting to tens of millions of dong. By using social media advertising tools, travel businesses can easily reach their target customers. This is also the way that bad guys use to scam tourists.

Recently, NNQH (living in Hanoi) posted on a group with more than 87,000 members, denouncing the Trekking Viet Nam unit for defrauding him of 12 million VND for a tour to Phong Nha.

Create a tour sales page to cheat tourists

The QH tourist group of 3 people booked a 3-day, 2-night Phong Nha discovery and experience tour for 3.85 million VND/person, scheduled to depart on April 14 in Hanoi. On the departure date, the tourist group still did not receive information about the pick-up time and location. When asked, a representative of Trekking Viet Nam said that the weather was bad, not ensuring the safety of the whole group, so they were forced to cancel the tour and committed to permanently reserve the tour cost for the group or refund 100% of the tour cost after 10 days.

However, after many days of waiting, the group of tourists still has not received the refund as agreed. QH has texted Trekking Viet Nam many times to request a refund, but the representative of the unit only mumbled, giving reasons such as leading tourists trekking in the forest, no phone signal to delay.

Tourists accuse a tour operator of fraud and money appropriation

By May 11, after the female tourist posted her complaint, Trekking Viet Nam no longer responded to messages or answered the phone. “In the next few days, I will collect evidence and report to the local police,” the female tourist said.

This is not the first time this unit has been accused by tourists of not paying for tours. Tourist VH (Hanoi) said that she had been scammed by Trekking Viet Nam in a similar way. "When I saw the advertisement for the Ky Quan San trekking tour of this unit, I looked up the reviews, saw that the reviews were not bad, so I decided to book a trekking tour on February 17-19 for 4 million VND," said Ms. VH.

The reason being that the group of 6 tourists who joined the tour that day had some work to do, the company announced that the tour would be canceled and that they would refund the money. However, the company did not refund the money as agreed despite the female tourist texting to remind her many times. "Now Trekking Viet Nam is not answering my calls anymore," she said.

Taking advantage of the fear of trouble when asking the police for intervention, the amount of money is only a few million VND, bad guys have committed fraud and appropriated the property of tourists.

Some individuals also take advantage of this by posting invitations to go backpacking or mountain climbing on weekends in groups. Because mountain climbing routes often require guides, many first-time trekkers are caught in the trap. The subjects often collect money in advance and then disappear or have unclear income and expenditure behavior during the trip to make a profit.

Information is widespread and difficult to verify.

Among hundreds and thousands of tour operators and individuals, choosing a reputable company is a challenge for tourists. “When I discovered I had been scammed, I realized that Trekking Viet Nam is not a company and does not have a representative office,” said Ms. QH.

This person said that she had seen this company’s tour advertisement on Facebook many times. “Before booking the tour, I checked Trekking Viet Nam’s page. When I saw that the page had 15,000 likes, had a clear website, and had many comments and shares, I thought it was trustworthy,” the female tourist said.

Bad guys use many different methods to gain customers' trust, such as naming themselves similar to major travel companies, buying social media accounts with many followers, using many fake accounts to comment to increase credibility, making many tourists think they are dealing with a reputable company. These guys also often offer attractive promotions and cheap prices to attract tourists.

The scam of selling cheap tours and travel combos in social media groups is not new, but many tourists still encounter it. When booking cheap tours or travel combos, customers often do not experience the services as advertised or have to pay additional fees.

To avoid being scammed, suffering financial losses and affecting travel plans, customers need to be vigilant and carefully research the information of the travel agency before booking a tour. They should choose large, reputable companies in the tourism industry.

When encountering problems, tourists need to quickly contact and report to the authorities for support and timely handling instructions. The Hanoi Department of Tourism has announced a hotline 1800556896 to promptly support tourists. After receiving information, the Department's Inspectorate will intervene and provide support to ensure safety and create a friendly tourism environment for domestic and foreign tourists.

According to Zing