Fraudster tourists have found a new way to rest in Turkish hotels for free. It is mainly Europeans, primarily the British, who engage in this business – fraud with insurance companies from fictitious poisonings in hotels, which were previously famous for the “epidemic”.
In fact, “postal transfer” is a variation of the “relax now, pay later” service. According to the Turkish media, a fraudulent tourist makes a hotel reservation with the option of payment by “postal transfer”, and after returning from Turkey does not make this payment, declaring to the bank in response to a payment order that arrives 3-4 months after the holiday that I have not been to any hotel. Fraudsters use a very simple “loophole”: hotels still cannot prove to the bank the fact of the tourist’s arrival, as the records of the cameras at the reception desk and other cameras are cleared in a month. At least this is what the Turkish hoteliers who described the problem to the mass media say.
They also say the fraud is organized, involving technicians who make sure payments are made by “postal transfer” rather than directly debited to the card, and lawyers who help the fraudster “prove” he was never at the hotel. The bank asks the hotel for data about the tourist – and if the video recording has already been erased at that time, there is a high probability that the funds will remain with the fraudster.
As Irfan Çolakoğlu, managing one of the hotels in Kashi, said, this season he had four such tourists who stayed in the most beautiful rooms and paid by “Postal Transfer”. He complained that it is tough to prove the fact of a tourist’s vacation, even with all the documents in hand, including the confirmed fact of the tourist’s stay in the country and the hotel. As a result, hoteliers are urgently looking for a way to deal with the new influx.