Police warning: Look out for hotel booking scammers

Travellers need to pay more attention when booking hotels online, police have warned.

Three Thai nationals have been arrested for allegedly defrauding international tourists out of thousands of dollars using a fake hotel booking scheme.

Three suspects scammed more than $21,000 from customers by creating fake Facebook and web addresses and fleecing unwary tourists.

The alleged fraudsters set up fake Facebook pages for well-known Pattaya area hotels, taking bookings and payments.

Officers from Thailand’s Tourist Police Bureau made arrests at three locations across Thailand.

The three suspects had no ties at all to the hotels they sold rooms at, news portal Travel Mole reported.

Travellers tried to check in at the hotels for which they had booked and found the properties had no record of the,

Thai Police issued a warning to travellers to fully verify hotel pages on social media before parting with their details.

“These suspects lured tourists using Facebook pages that mimicked popular Pattaya hotels," Thai Police said.

"They offered fake promotions to convince victims to transfer money for non-existent bookings.”

Image: Rye Jesson, scop.io.  

Caught out trying to scam a government

It takes a certain chutzpah to attempt to scam a government.

But only if you get away with it.

Two travel agencies in Japan tried and failed.

Japanese travel agency group HIS Co said two subsidiaries scammed the government through the Go To Travel subsidised tourism campaign.

It reported that Japan Holiday Travel Co and Miki Tourist Co fraudulently over-reported the number of hotel stays booked as part of the campaign.

Together they received $8.23 million worth of subsidies for hotel stays that didn’t exist.

HIS said the theft was discovered during an internal audit, Travel Mole reports.

Miki Tourist allegedly conspired with hotel operator JHAT Co but Japan Holiday Travel did not take an active role in processing bogus bookings.

HIS CEO Hideo Sawada said Miki Tourist’s president will be fired and HIS will repay the money to the government.

The Go To Travel subsidised tourism campaign covered 50% of travel costs from July 2020 to December 2020, when it was halted due to rising Covid-19 cases.

Image: William Vaccaro Scop.io

Jailed: one of the dumbest families in Britain

The Byng family thought they would try to recoup the costs of their package holiday to the Canary Islands by taking legal for the food poisoning they alleged they suffered on their trip. 

Their case fell apart when they failed to consider all the social media posts they had published having a good time on the trip - and in the end their stupidity ended them in jail. 

The four holidaymakers who claimed they picked up a gastric illness while on a Jet2holidays package were identified as fraudsters. 

The court was shown them using the waterslide, swimming in the pool and drinking in the bar - all while they claimed to be sick, Travel Mole reported.


Christopher Byng, 38, Barbara Byng, 64, Linda Lane, 36, and Anthony Byng 66, all from Middlesbrough, were convicted of contempt of court at Teesside Combined Court after admitting to submitting false gastric illness claims.


The Byngs were jailed for four months while Lane received a suspended sentence.


The four claimed that they, and the two children they were travelling with, had all suffered with stomach cramps, sickness, diarrhoea, headaches and hot and cold sweats as a result of food poisoning on an all-inclusive holiday at the Paradise Lago Taurito & Waterpark, Gran Canaria (above), in November 2016.


They then issued court proceedings, which were defended by Jet2holidays.


During investigations, Jet2holidays and law firm, Horwich Farrelly,  discovered evidence which showed the claims were fabricated.


The evidence included a number of social media posts from the family, including images and video footage of them enjoying themselves on holiday despite claiming to be ill.


This included the family using the waterslide, swimming in the pool and drinking in the bar. No mention or sign of any illness was made, despite the severe symptoms they claimed to have been suffering.


Christopher Byng also made no mention of the illness in a post-holiday survey, saying he was 'very satisfied' with the choice, cleanliness and quality of meals at the hotel.


Asked in the survey whether he was likely to book with Jet2holidays again in the next 12 months?' he responded 'very likely'. 

The Byng family are not very bright.