Forging the seal of the Department of Tourism to scam
Recently, a tourist with social network account N. reported on the travel Fanpage that he was scammed by a bad guy to book a resort room at Vinpearl complex on Hon Tre island (Nha Trang city). The bad guy created the Vinpearl Hotel Nha Trang Fanpage to create trust for the booker. When the tourist booked a room, this account only quoted a room price of 2.7 million VND/night. To create trust, the bad guy only asked the customer to transfer 50% to an account named Vinpearl Resort JSC at a bank, and also issued a voucher with the seal and signature of the Director of Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism (fake). Mr. HTV (Thanh Hoa province) fell into the booking trap of the bad guy because he found the Vinpearl room price too cheap. When he arrived in Nha Trang, he found out that the room price of Vinpearl was much higher than the price offered by the scammer. Luckily, his family was supported by a travel company to book a room at another hotel at the original price so that they could have a fun trip to the coastal city. Similarly, Masova Hotel was scammed by bad guys who set up a fake Fanpage and forged vouchers with the seal of Khanh Hoa Department of Tourism. When tourists asked acquaintances to contact the hotel to ask for a discount, they realized they were almost scammed.
 |
| Bad guys create fake vouchers with the name of Masova hotel and the seal of the Department of Tourism to scam. |
The situation of scammers impersonating the Fanpages of a series of famous hotels and resorts in Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa to scam and steal money from tourists' room reservations is not new. However, many tourists still fall into the trap. Mr. Luong Hoang Thien - General Manager of Masova Hotel said that in May and June 2025, 4 tourists were scammed by scammers when they wanted to book a room at Masova Hotel for a total amount of more than 50 million VND. Previously, in early 2025, a customer was scammed by scammers and robbed of nearly 50 million VND.
In fact, fraud to appropriate room booking money is not new, but the tricks are becoming more and more sophisticated. Fraudsters often set up money receiving accounts with names similar to the hotel or resort name so that customers do not suspect. Not only defrauding customers of room booking deposits, bad guys also lure customers into logging into bad links, then all the money in the account is appropriated, so many people lose a large amount of money. "At first, they asked me to transfer 1 million VND to deposit at Masova Hotel. Then, they said I had transferred the wrong booking content, asked me to transfer it again and had someone instruct me to log into the link, fill in the information to get the money that was "wrongly" transferred. Then my account was appropriated by bad guys, transferring nearly 26.4 million VND", said Ms. M. (in Hanoi ).
Be careful not to get scammed
To help tourists avoid being scammed when booking rooms, Mr. Vo Quang Hoang - Chairman of Khanh Hoa Hotel Association (Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa Tourism Association) recommends that visitors wishing to travel to Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa should contact hotels and resorts directly or book rooms through local travel agencies, reputable international online booking sites such as Agoda.com, Booking.com ... If booking rooms through hotel fanpages, it is necessary to check carefully to avoid being scammed. According to Mr. Hoang, experience shows that newly created fanpages, pages that have been renamed many times, pages with too many good reviews in a very short time, pages selling rooms at very cheap prices compared to online travel platforms (Agoda.com, Booking.com ...) are likely to be fake pages. If in doubt, do not transfer money to book a room, but find a way to contact the hotel directly for verification.
Fraudulent cases of appropriating guests' room booking money have more or less affected the local tourism image. The authorities have intervened but the fraud situation still occurs. Mr. Cung Quynh Anh - Deputy Director of the Department of Culture, Sports and Tourism said that the bad guys taking advantage of trust to defraud room booking money are systematic tricks and behaviors, occurring many times with many different individuals, affecting the image of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa tourism, so it needs to be strictly handled. At the end of 2024, when this situation flourished, the Department of Tourism (formerly) sent a document requesting the Provincial Police and departments, branches, and tourism businesses to propagate to make tourists vigilant. At the same time, the department also requested that when detecting fake fanpages, businesses must report in writing to the Department of Information and Communications (formerly) for timely prevention in accordance with the provisions of law. Mr. Pham Minh Nhut - Chairman of Nha Trang - Khanh Hoa Tourism Association said that the association has requested the Hotel Association to strengthen warnings to customers to avoid being scammed; compile a list of fake hotels, count the number of scammed customers to report to the authorities for investigation and handling.
 |
| One of the fake Fanpages of Best Western Premier Marvella Nha Trang hotel. |
Based on the above situation, hotels and resorts should search on Facebook to see if there are any other fanpages similar to their hotel name. If a fake page is discovered, it is necessary to report it as a fake page to have the page blocked; at the same time, warn that it is a fake page so that customers do not put their trust in the wrong place. In fact, many tourists have avoided online scams thanks to warnings from businesses... "Previously, some tourists lost money when they fell into the trap of booking rooms through fake Facebook pages of our hotel. Currently, there are still 3 fake Facebook pages named Best Western Premier Marvella Nha Trang. The hotel has continuously posted warnings, so recently customers have been more vigilant. Many customers have contacted the hotel and avoided being scammed... We hope that the authorities will thoroughly handle this problem", a representative of Best Western Premier Marvella Nha Trang shared.
THANH NGUYEN
Source: https://baokhanhhoa.vn/du-lich/202506/canh-giac-thu-doanlua-dao-dat-phong-qua-mang-ddd1cac/
Comment (0)