Fraudsters disguise as travel agent in ‘free five-star cruise’ scam

A fan page called “STAR Travel Blue Sea Cruise” began to post articles from July 25 about a “real experience” program for families with young children in the summer.

The articles claimed that selected families would travel for free on the yacht and be broadcast on television in the program called “Daddy, where are we going?

They will be able to interact with foreign guests to improve their children’s English skills.

The fan page claimed the program was organized under the cooperation with travel company Best Price.

After submitting information, participants were added to a closed group where they were asked to click on the link to reach Best Price’s website for a small survey. Participants were then asked to evaluate the quality of a tour product worth VND680,000 (US$28.70) per person.

Participants need to fulfill the requirements to be considered for the main program. Next, the scammer asked participants to transfer money to an account named “Nguyen Manh Cuong” at SHB bank.

The scammer promised to pay the entire principal plus 10% bonus to participants after they completed the survey.

Bui Thanh Tu, marketing director of Best Price, told VnExpress that his company did not cooperate with “STAR Travel Blue Sea Cruise.”

“This is likely a scam, impersonating our company and the program ‘Dad, where are we going?’,” Tu said.

With the peak summer vacation season around the corner, the Ministry of Public Security earlier warned tourists to be cautious about common scams.

Police said one of the most popular tricks was to create fake websites and fan pages of reputable travel companies with fake receipts and invoices.

When victims transfer money, they cut off all contacts and disappear.