A GoFundMe has been created to help a Regina-based travel agency that fell victim to a scam involving fake credit cards, costing the business nearly $300,000.
As first reported by CTV News, Hien Duong, owner of Hugo Travel, is out $284,000 after a fraudster used phoney credit cards to purchase airline tickets from him.
Duong and his wife, Hannie Hguyen, moved to Canada from Vietnam in 2021, and one of his passions is bringing travellers from North America to his home country, the report says.
The travel advisor believes having a niche clientele made him a victim of the scam, which reportedly started in December when he was contacted on social media by a third-party booking agent from the United States.
The agent was looking to book flights for clients of his own to Vietnam.
Duong says about 100 flights were booked by the scammer, but booking agent apparently used fake credit cards to pay for the tickets.
“After the trip, [the fraudster] would dispute the transaction,” Duong told CTV. “I would appeal with the airline and they said the card was fake.”
Now, Hugo Travel has had to pay about $284,000 to multiple airlines in kickback charges – and it’s increasing.
“I think we all have this fear”
When Ontario-based Laurie Keith CEO at Boutique Travel Services came across Duong’s story online, she was upset by what she read.
She decided to launch a GoFundMe page to help him recover some of the costs.
“I think we all have this fear deep inside that we may fall victim to a scam and as travel professionals,” Keith told PAX. “We work excruciatingly hard for our clients in meeting their needs that sometimes we avoid our own needs.”
“It pains me to see another industry colleague being taken advantage of, and at this level of loss, that can gravely affect one’s personal livelihood. Some of us have been in the industry for so long and can see the scammer red flags, but not everybody can and not everybody is immune to such risks.”
Keith launched her fundraiser Friday afternoon (April 25), with a goal set at $5,000.
“Not only did I feel compelled to personally help in any way that I can, I also wanted to show Hien and Hannie that as a community, we’re there for them,” she said. “That we understand them and support them. They are not alone. We may be strangers, we may be competitors, but one thing is certain, the travel industry is one of the best in the world filled with like-minded, giving and caring people by nature. We take care of customers and we take care of each other.”
Police told CTV that fraud like this is common among small businesses.
“A lot of the frauds we have specifically dealing with businesses are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, up to millions of dollars,” officer in charge of financial crimes Sgt. Dave Krieger told the outlet. “A lot of the frauds we deal with are bigger corporations and bigger businesses sometimes where money going missing is harder to detect.”
CTV reports that Duong has filed a report with Regina police, which is now investigating the matter.
To view the GoFundMe page, click here.
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