5 days ago
Police warn hotel booking scams are on the rise
Police have warned that more and more people are being deceived by online fraudsters, with fake booking services offering promotional discount rates for hotel rooms now topping complaints filed by victims.
The warning was issued by Provincial Police Region 2, which oversees eight eastern provinces, including popular beach destinations in Chon Buri, Rayong, Trat and Chanthaburi.
In July, there were 34,570 cybercrime cases reported to the Royal Thai Police website, with 17,823 (51.5%) involving fake pages offering service bookings.
The total damage to victims was around 162 million baht, according to Pol Lt Gen Yingyod Thepjamnong, chief of Police Region 2,
He said police had recently arrested a suspect, identified only as "Aiw", who ran a Facebook page advertising hotel rooms and pool villas. He had lured his victims into making payments into mule accounts. The suspect was found linked to 20 reported cases.
Typical scammers' behaviour was to post fraudulent offers of services in these provinces on social media platforms and advertise them with promotions requiring immediate payment to secure the cheapest prices.
After victims complete payment, these pages block all further efforts to contact them again.
