Hong Kong travel agents seek police help after surge in scammers using bogus social media accounts to cheat customers looking for cheap deals
- Victims pay for tickets or travel packages by transferring money to personal bank account but do not receive booking confirmation and cannot contact seller again
- One fake account offered two round-trip business-class tickets to Tokyo for as low as HK$6,590
A surge in bogus social media accounts posing as Hong Kong travel agencies offering cheap deals has prompted a local trade body to seek police help, with one customer reportedly losing HK$40,000 (US$5,132) to scammers.
Travel Industry Council executive director Fanny Yeung Shuk-fun on Sunday said four to five agencies had received about 60 inquiries from residents about Facebook adverts this month alone.
“Some consumers called the travel agencies and asked how those travel products could be that cheap and realised they were fake adverts trying to con them with extremely low-priced travel and hotel package deals into making money transfers,” Yeung said.
Fraudulent social media accounts posing as agencies and offering special deals have surged in recent months, with EGL Tours – popular with Hongkongers booking trips to Japan – revealing it had uncovered more than 100 fake Facebook pages using its name.
Victims were asked to pay for tickets or travel packages by transferring money to a personal bank account but did not receive a booking confirmation and were unable to reach the seller again. They then checked with the travel agencies and realised they had been scammed.