AHSA, 23 April — Saudi tourists and businessmen who travel abroad have been warned against unscrupulous foreign agents who have launched various schemes on the Internet.
Many Saudi travelers have received e-mails and telephone messages offering attractive discounts on tour packages organized by travel agencies and hotels.
Most of the e-mails and telephone calls came from women who said they worked for a hotel or travel agency in an Arab or non-Arab city. The rates they quote are substantially lower than what reputable hotels in those areas normally charge. The customer is thus convinced to subscribe to a discount card.
Saudi and Gulf-based airline companies and travel agents have warned against the schemes as summer approaches. Summer is the peak travel season in the Gulf region as large numbers of people vacation abroad during the school holidays.
A businessman who was a recent victim of such a scheme said a woman claiming to be an employee of a well-known hotel in an Arab country contacted him on the Internet offering special rates if he participated in a discount scheme. To join the program, the businessman was asked to pay SR500 through his credit card. He agreed and gave the woman his credit card number.
Though the sum was charged to his account, the businessman has not heard from either the woman or the hotel for two years.
Surprisingly, a few days ago he received a call from the woman offering a similar discount scheme for another hotel in the same Arab city. The businessman said he discovered the telephone number from the caller identity system but nobody responded to his call. The caller was simply after his credit card number in order to charge his account.
