Planning to travel? Police warn of fake travel agent websites

At least 35 individuals have dropped at least $34,000 to travel cons this calendar year, reported law enforcement.

The law enforcement have observed an increase in frauds involving the non-shipping and delivery of journey-linked companies, like visa programs, arrival card programs and flight bookings manufactured by means of bogus travel agent internet sites.

In these scenarios, the victims would access pretend vacation agent web-sites to make their journey preparations.

The internet sites would prompt the victims to important in their own details and payment card particulars to get the travel-related companies they sought. Right after keying in their details for the initial time, victims would acquire much more e-mails prompting them for much more info to finish their software.

Victims would realise that they experienced been scammed soon after examining with the appropriate authorities and providers, and discovering that their apps and purchases had been hardly ever processed.

The police suggest using the following precautionary actions:

• Examine with formal resources this kind of as the Singapore Tourism Board (www.stb.gov.sg) and the Nationwide Affiliation of Vacation Agents Singapore (www.natas.vacation) if the seller is an accredited travel agent.
• Order only from authorised sellers or reliable resources. Purchasing affordable tickets from resellers is risky – If the price tag is also good to be true, it most likely is.
• Refer to the Ministry of Overseas Affair’s website (https://www.mfa.gov.sg/Exactly where-Are-You-Travelling-To) to make sure that you are applying the proper web site for your purposes to vacation out of Singapore.
• Refer to the Immigration & Checkpoints Authority’s website (https://www.ica.gov.sg/enter-depart) for entry specifications into Singapore.
• Report any fraudulent credit history or debit card prices to your lender and cancel your card instantly.

If you have any data relevant to these crimes, make sure you call the police hotline at 1800-255-0000, or post it on the web at www.police.gov.sg/iwitness. All info will be saved strictly private. If you need urgent law enforcement guidance, remember to dial
‘999’.

For far more information on cons, you can take a look at www.scamalert.sg or phone the Anti-Scam Hotline at 1800-722-6688.