Members of the public are being advised by police to be cautious about making hotel or resort bookings during the New Year festival via Facebook pages, as they risk losing their money to scammers.
The Royal Thai Police say that scammers have used AI to create bank accounts and fake Facebook pages, which resemble genuine pages but offer unusually cheap accommodation. They do, however, demand that deposit payments are transferred immediately, to ‘secure’ the booking.
People with doubts about such web pages should call 1441 for advice and check the backgrounds of the pages before making bookings, said the police, as they advised any victims to gather evidence, such as the URL of the fake web page, money transfer slips and advertisements, for when they file a complaint with the police.
The police cited the case of one victim, a teacher in Chumphon province, who told the police that he transferred 10,800 baht for accommodation at a hotel in Phuket during the New Year break, because the page has more than 30,000 followers.
He also said that, shortly after he made the advance payment, he was told to pay another 4,500 baht as a guarantee for the room keys. It was then that he realised that he had been duped and decided to file a complaint.
