Lost billions because of buying fake plane tickets to return home for Lunar New Year 2019

Vietnam Airlines said that in early October, Vietnamese workers in Japan discovered that billions of dong they spent on tickets to return home for the 2019 Lunar New Year holiday may have been appropriated by a subject in Vietnam through the form of selling cheap airline tickets.

The airline representative said that they received this information from a representative of the Japanese police investigation agency, which is handling the complaint of Vietnamese workers there. This person added that this phenomenon has been occurring in recent years. However, they do not know the exact number of passengers who were scammed during Tet this year, because the Japanese police have not provided specific information.

According to the complaint of dozens of these workers, the scammer introduced himself as a lecturer at a prestigious university in Hanoi, with many connections, so he was able to buy airline tickets at much cheaper prices than other ticket agents.

With a commitment to pay a commission of 7.5 - 10%, this subject has created a large customer network in Japan, some workers even stand up to collect ticket purchase lists with a total value of up to billions of VND.

According to the airline's policy, customers who book tickets will have their seats reserved for 24 hours along with the booking code, after which the customer must issue a ticket - that is, transfer money to the airline to get the plane ticket. Taking advantage of this policy, the scammer will take the booking code and send it to the customer as collateral.

Many customers mistakenly believe that they have a ticket when holding the booking code in their hands, and quickly pay 100% of the money to the subject. In fact, the subjects, after receiving the money from the customers, do not pay the airline and let the booking code self-destruct after it expires.

Or more sophisticatedly, many subjects still make payments and issue tickets to customers, but then refund the tickets (cancel the tickets, do not go anymore) to receive the entire amount of the ticket purchase and only have to pay a small fee for the refund procedure.

Although the above tricks are common methods, in reality, scammers will vary and change their approach depending on the customer's level of understanding.

Customers need to get a receipt and invoice when buying tickets. This is a document that customers use to protect their rights.

According to records, with customers who are less tech-savvy, they can ask customers to pay for airline tickets using money transfer software, give misleading instructions, and when customers have difficulties, they will offer to transfer money directly to them to "help pay".

A representative of Vietnam Airlines said that because it is a civil transaction between individuals, the airline cannot help handle the incident. The airline can only warn and advise customers.

According to the airlines' recommendations, to avoid buying fake tickets, passengers should buy tickets using one of the following three methods:

- Buy directly on the airline's official website

- Buy at domestic and international airline ticket offices

- Buy at official dealers of the Company in and out of the country.

In addition, customers need to get a receipt and invoice when purchasing tickets. This is a document that customers use to protect their rights./.