Book a holiday, beware of 'surprisingly cheap' hotels in Vung Tau

When booking hotel rooms on Facebook for the holidays in Vung Tau, many tourists were upset and angry because they were scammed by fake fanpages offering cheap prices.

Mr. Trung's reflection information and warnings about fraud and impersonation from genuine hotels - Photo: AB

It is worth mentioning that the fake fanpages have a higher number of likes, content and images than the real hotel pages but the prices are much cheaper.

Impersonating hotel fanpage, shocking discounts to scam

Reflecting to Tuoi Tre, Mr. Quang Trung (living in Ho Chi Minh City) said that this past summer vacation, his family wanted to take their children to the beach. Then he went on Facebook to find a hotel to book a room and saw many pages offering extremely cheap prices.

In mid-August, Mr. Trung chose to contact the fanpage "Ngoc Hanh Hotel Vung Tau" to book a room and was informed that the price for a single room was from 600,000 - 700,000 VND. Mr. Trung booked two rooms for his family and another person's family to stay for two days.

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The Facebook member also asked Mr. Trung to provide booking information and issue a confirmation slip. At the same time, he was asked to transfer a deposit to hold the room.

Because some friends wanted to go together for the holiday, there was a problem with the room reservation. Therefore, Mr. Trung's family made an appointment to go directly to the hotel to get a room and pay.

Next, Mr. Trung's family went to Ngoc Hanh Hotel (47-49 Thuy Van, Vung Tau Ward, Ho Chi Minh City) and were surprised when the receptionist announced the price of 1.2 million VND/single room.

"I showed the chat with Ngoc Hanh Vung Tau Hotel page to prove it, but the hotel receptionist said it was a 'scam page'," said Mr. Trung.

Because the group was not satisfied with the accommodation, Mr. Trung continued to visit the Facebook page "Romeliess Hotel Vung Tau" to see the advertisement and room rental prices. He carefully went to the Romeliess Hotel (31-33 Thuy Van) and was informed by the receptionist that the page "Romeliess Hotel Vung Tau" was fake, cheating customers of their deposits.

"If my friend had closed the deal early that day, I would have lost 1-2 million VND in deposit. Although I haven't lost any money yet, I hope through my story to warn tourists to be wary of cheap hotel and motel fanpages," said Mr. Trung.

In fact, through research, the trick of impersonating restaurant and hotel fanpages to scam deposits is not rare. Many tourists see cheap prices so they transfer deposits (30-70% of the room price) to book a room. When discovered, the scammers immediately block the tourists' communication.

Mr. Trung's reflection information and warnings about fraud and impersonation from genuine hotels - Photo: AB

Be wary of unusually low prices

Faced with the above situation, many hotels in Vung Tau ward have also issued notices and warnings to tourists .

Specifically, Ngoc Hanh Hotel informed that it had discovered a number of individuals impersonating the hotel's name to commit fraud and appropriate customers' room reservations through fake fanpages/websites, especially during upcoming major holidays. Ngoc Hanh Hotel informed that it only has two fanpages "Ngoc Hanh Hotel" and Ngoc Hanh Beach Hotel".

Similarly, Romaliess Hotel also reported being impersonated to scam customers. The scam involves advising customers on room reservations and asking them to transfer deposits.

When the customer transfers the deposit, the account reports an error, the scam site asks the customer to click on the link sent by the scam site. The customer follows the above instructions and the bank account automatically loses all the money.

Talking to Tuoi Tre about the above situation, Mr. Bui Van Hi - Chairman of Vung Tau Ward People's Committee - called on tourists to be more vigilant and proactive in prevention so that the September 2 holiday in the coastal city of Vung Tau is truly safe and enjoyable.

Mr. Hi recommends that people and tourists only book rooms and services through official channels. Specifically, contact hotels and accommodation establishments directly or book through reputable and verified websites and applications. Limit transactions through personal Facebook and Zalo pages with unclear legal information.

Before transferring money, visitors need to check the address and phone number on many different sources. At the same time, ask the hotel to issue an invoice and a booking confirmation with full information. Avoid transferring the entire amount in advance.

Prioritize deposits through the hotel or business's own bank account, avoid transferring money to strange personal accounts.

Mr. Hi said: "You need to be wary of hotels offering unusually low prices, such as rental prices much lower than the market, which are often scams. Guests should also check room rates at many facilities in the area for comparison."

According to Mr. Hi, in case of suspected fraud, customers need to save information and evidence (messages, account numbers, images) to immediately report to the ward police (02543852264) or the hotline of the ward People's Committee (02543511928) for timely support.

How to identify fake fanpage

According to an IT specialist, fake Facebook pages often spend money on advertising, so the number of likes and followers is much higher than the official pages. When searching, fake pages often appear at the top.

According to this expert, there are some simple ways to identify fake fanpages. Specifically, each Facebook page has information about "page transparency" in the introduction section.

Visitors can see the date the fanpage was last created, whether the page name has changed many times, which country/region it is located in... If the name has changed many times, the location is abroad, it is very suspicious, visitors need to be careful.

HA MI - A LOC

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/dat-cho-choi-le-canh-giac-khach-san-gia-re-bat-ngo-o-vung-tau-20250822225731303.htm