Customers Duped By Online Travel Agency Based In Kuwait

At a time when a large segment of the country's citizens and residents are preparing to book travel tickets in order to take advantage of spending the long Eid al-Fitr holiday outside the country, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has received dozens of complaints from citizens and residents who claim they were victims of fraud by a well-known ticket booking platform claiming to be based in Kuwait and having a landline phone number to promote its services.

Hundreds of citizens and residents in the Gulf and other countries are believed to have swallowed the bait, according to the sources, because the Ministry of Commerce and Industry has received emails from victims abroad, seeking help from the ministry to return their money from the ticketing platform, in the belief that the website specialized in booking travel tickets is Kuwaiti.

According to the sources, the Ministry of Commerce and Industry is presently cooperating with the Public Authority for Communications and Information Technology to take steps against the site, which might result in the platform being shut down and the Kuwaiti landline being cancelled.

Individuals who book airline tickets through international ticket booking websites have the option to pay through a number of booking platforms after selecting the travel destination and date of the trip, according to the sources. Often, this platform, which claims to be based in Kuwait, is the cheapest, and customers are enticed to swallow the bait.

After purchasing a ticket and paying the price, the person receives a call or an e-mail a day or two before the trip, informing him or her that ticket prices have increased and that the person must pay the price difference, which ranges from 10% to 30% of the total ticket amount, or cancel the reservation.

In this case, the customer only has to pay the difference and has no choice but to succumb to blackmail, and if the victim requests to cancel the reservation, the passenger is promised that the value of his tickets, which was deducted from his bank account, will be returned within a week, and when customer service is called, the response is "there is a problem," as a result of which hundreds, if not thousands, of travellers have lost their money.

 

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