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Online scammers hit hotels
An NZPA report says that hotels and motels throughout New Zealand are being targeted by online scammers making fake e-mail bookings with stolen credit cards.
The e-mails come from fraudsters claiming to be travel agents, making bookings for non-existent clients and then demanding the hotels to pay them a 10 percent commission.
The clients later turn out to be fake, their credit cards stolen and hotels are unable to get the commission back.
Police manager national electronic crime group Maarten Kleintjes said the scammers, all from overseas, were targeting accommodation providers worldwide.
“They’ll say they come from China, but they’ll have a South African accent and their e-mail will be from yet another country and they use the internet to hide themselves.”
He warned businesses not to accept any money or pay any commission until the clients arrived to stay.
The hotel and motel association were aware of such scams and had warned people about them.
“I’m sure some people have actually fallen for it, but they wouldn’t tell us if they had. Hotels and motels have been well briefed so I don’t think anyone else will fall for it,” Mr Kleintjes said.
“Before the internet we only had to deal with criminals in our own country, now we have to deal with crooks from other countries as well.”
He said the scammers went to great lengths to make themselves sound credible, creating websites and elaborate stories to back up their claims.
Police received at least two complaints a day from targeted hotels and motels, Mr Kleintjes said.
A report by The Mole and NZPA
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