With the arrival of the second half of the year, trips increase with the national holidays, Day of the Dead and finally with the cchristmas celebrationshowever, in recent months there has been the growth of a phenomenon known as montaviajeswhich are frauds carried out by supposed agencies.
According to Citizen Council for Security and Justice of Mexico Cityel number of reports of fraud committed by online travel agencies increased 54 percent between January and July of this year compared to the first seven months of 2021.
Requests for help went from 37 in the first seven months of 2021 to 57 in the first six of 2022and the main incidences were in 76 percent due to problems with vacation plans10 percent per airline tickets, promotions and hotel reservations with 3.4 percent each and the rest corresponded to services other than those contracted, vacation plans and timeshares.
61 percent of those who filed a report are women and 41 percent people between 41 and 55 years old. Of all the reports received, in 92 percent of the cases the fraud was completed and the rest remained tentative.
This phenomenon causeda Commission on Citizen Security of the Congress of Mexico City approved with 10 votes in favor and one abstention, a point of agreement that urges the capital government to combat the montaviajes.
How do they operate? montaviajes?
Montaviajes are frauds orchestrated by alleged online travel agencies, whose mode of operation is presenting great deals on travel packages or separate services such as airline tickets or hotel reservations. After this, they request partial payment or in a single exhibition of what was contracted.
The brunette legislator Nazario Norberto Sanchez asserted that several citizens have approached him to denounce the situation and “have asked us to reinforce the laws regarding these scam travel agencies and pseudo-official online pages, since they gave as an example one for the tourist destination of Xcaret, where reserve, pay and arriving at the place everything turns out to be a fraud”.
Recommendations not to fall into montaviajes
The Citizen Council for Security and Justice of Mexico City has given some recommendations so as not to fall for these fraudulent agencies. Here we share these tips.
- Verify that it is registered with the Ministry of Tourism.
- Check their ratings, reviews and comments on social networks.
- Investigate its age in the market
- Check their references at Profeco.
- Confirm with the hotels and airlines that your reservations are made.
In case of detecting a montaviajes agency or having been a victim of one of them, you can consult free legal advice a the Security Line and Trusted Chat, 55 5533 5533, and report it to the authorities.
With information from Leonardo Lugo
DMZ