Thassos: He pretended to be a policeman and cheated hoteliers

The “fishing” aimed at the unsuspecting hoteliers and owners of rental accommodation has been a common phenomenon in recent years. This year, in fact, attempts to steal sums of money have increased.

Recently, on her island I’ll, astute introduces himself as a police officer from Limenas asking to book a room for the month of July. It then asks potential victims to click on a link in order to deposit the money for the reservation. And just like that the email link leads to a fake website and the phone number leads to the scammer.

“There are too many cases, he is neither the first nor the last” he comments on GRTimes the president of the Association of Hoteliers of Thassos (EXTH) Paris Paraschoudis regarding the case of the alleged policeman.

As he explains, “fishing” towards unsuspecting hoteliers and owners of tourist accommodation, happens every year, however, “this year, there are more attempts”, registering an increase in the spring. As pointed out, there are many incidents that are not even reported, because the victims are ashamed to report the incident.

The so-called entrepreneurs

And on the other hand, there are scammers who claim to represent legitimate businesses. A few days ago, again in Thassos, a stranger posing as the owner of an accommodation managed to extort more than 1,700 euros from a foreigner for booking a ‘ghost’ accommodation.

The email link leads to a fake website and the phone number leads to the scammer who claims to represent the legitimate business.

In fact, as GRTimes.gr is informed, in the past a fraud was reported that was declared as a reservation through a popular platform for finding and booking hotels and rooms. The “ghost” accommodation in question appeared near a businessman’s hotel unit, in South Thassos, and as reported, police officers were investigating to find out what exactly happened. “It took at least a year for the case to take the path of justice” state sources of the incident to GRTimes.gr.

Many attempts in Pieria as well

Fraud attempts to extract money from astute customers either pretending to be interested in booking a room or as owners of tourist accommodation are observed throughout Greece.

In Pieria, a tourist destination that combines sea and mountain, as the president of the local Association of Hoteliers Heraklis Tsitlakidis reports to GRTimes.gr “there are many attempts, but the victims have been limited and the hoteliers are now cunning”.

As pointed out, the relevant warnings and instructions that have been sent to their members and to potential victims of fraud have managed to limit “phishing” phenomena.

Scam phone calls

Vishing is the related term (combined from the words ‘Voice’ and ‘Phising’) which refers to telephone fraud and is designed to trick the victim into revealing personal and financial information. his information or security codes or to transfer money to the scammers.

What can you do to avoid them? Among other things, be careful with surprise and unannounced phone calls. Do not transfer money to another bank account at their request.

Retrieve information via SMS

Smishing is the relative term (s.s. derived from the combination of the words ‘SMS’ and ‘Phising’) which refers to the attempt by fraudsters to obtain personal and financial information or security codes via SMS messages.

What can you do to avoid them? Among other things, do not click on electronic links (links), attached files or images received by text messages (sms) without verifying the sender.

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