The Crimean authorities have expanded the list of information provided through the hotline of the Republican Ministry of Resorts and Tourism. Now tourists can clarify the legality of the selected hotel or health resort even before booking, and it will save them from fraud on the Internet, − the press service of the Ministry informed.
"We additionally inform tourists about the list of functioning hotels and health resorts so that our guests could avoid fraudulent schemes, because in the situation of the high demand for vacations, fraudsters sell on the Internet tour vouchers for stay in non-existing resorts in southern Russia including Crimea. As a rule, fraudsters create a website for a once working but now closed hotel or health resort and offer big discounts in exchange for a full prepayment", — explained Vadim Volchenko, Minister of Resorts and Tourism of Crimea.
A Crimean city appeared among the top three resorts for inexpensive medicinal treatment in the autumn >>
So, when buying vouchers, tourists should check whether the phone number codes correspond to the region of the hotel, and not to rush to make a prepayment before receiving a booking confirmation, − the Ministry of Health recommends. You should also be cautious about all e-mails from unknown addresses, as well as advertisements offering big discounts on full prepayment.
"As a rule, most hotels require partial prepayment for booking and the full price prepayment is rather an exception", — the minister said.
They also added at the Ministry, that 834 accommodation facilities operate in Crimea this season, which have taken an obligation to comply with all the recommendations of Rospotrebnadzor (Russian Consumer Protection Authority).
Since the beginning of the year, the Ministry of Resorts and Tourism of the Republic of Crimea has spotted 24 fraudulent websites for 13 accommodation facilities. 103 complaints were received from the deceived tourists, which were sent to the "Cybersecurity" department of the Ministry of Internal Affairs of the Russian Federation and the regional police to initiate criminal investigation and block those websites.
