Fraudulent Travel Reservations Cost An Estimated 5 Million Dinars Loss Last Year

With the launch of commercial flights at Kuwait International Airport starting August, the fake reservations’ phenomenon returned with new fraudulent methods were visible online from sites managed from abroad, reports Al Qabas daily.

A number of travelers complained of being duped and losing money after making reservations on fake travel websites and online apps that seem attractive through their advertisements spread across social media sites. The ads offered trips at reduced prices for tickets on multiple airlines that suited their needs. Al-Qabas daily, quoting sources, estimated the value of losses due to fake reservations at more than 5 million dinars in the past year, and about 80% of cases targeting travelers are by foreign online sites or apps managed from outside the country.

The problem can’t be handled as only the General Authority for Communications and Information Technology can find the sites to block them. The Directorate General of Civil Aviation is keen to regulate the air travel market in the country and prohibit dealing with intermediaries with regards to reservations and sale of travel tickets, who are not authorized to engage in air travel market activities. A circular was issued earlier regulating the sales and marketing of travel tickets in the air travel market in Kuwait, which stipulates that travel tickets are not issued at less than the market price unless the airlines are authorized to do so before the tickets are issued.

The daily called on travelers to refrain from booking on untrustworthy sites, and should only do so after confirming the license number of the travel and tourism office or on the website through which reservations are made, and to be sure to check that the poster bears the logo of civil aviation, including the serial number in its ads, whether through newspapers or social media sites.

Travelers who were fleeced by the online reservations’ fraud must go to the Air Transport Department at Kuwait Airport to submit an official complaint about being cheated to start taking legal measures. The number of complaints by travelers against some airlines or travel agencies was about 3,000 complaints last year and, such complaints have increased in the summer.

Civil aviation has inspection teams for the 450 travel and tourism offices licensed by the Ministry of Trade and Industry, in order to monitor and close unlicensed offices in cooperation with the Ministry of Commerce.

 

SOURCE LINK

Comments Post Comment

Leave a Comment

Submit