3 weeks ago
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BAGUIO CITY — The city government has reminded tourists to be alert in their accommodation bookings to avoid falling victims to scammers and operators of illegal transient business.
The reminders were issued as the city government, led by Mayor Benjamin Magalong, prepares to roll out crowd-drawing events in the Summer Capital.
The City Tourism Office asked the public to be cautious of fake social media pages and accounts pretending to be the owners or representatives of legitimate accommodation establishments.
To make sure of legitimate transactions, visitors were urged to transact only with accommodation establishments listed on the city's official tourist assistance website, the Visita website at htttp://visita.baguio.gov.ph/.
To verify legitimacy of your transactions, call the Permits and Licensing Division at 619-3184 to confirm the names of registered owner/s and their contact numbers.
Fake accounts may be reported to the official Facebook page of the Regional Anti-Cybercrime Unit Cordillera (RACU-CAR): https://www.facebook.com/RACU.CORDILLERA2023 or call 0967-234-2628.
The City Tourism Office also listed some of the warning signs that the service is fraudulent:
– Too good to be true packages. All-in packages that are unrealistically cheap may not be actually real;
– No business permit and no official receipt. Always ask for copies of business permits and receipts that can be verifiable;
– No official public website or social media page. Legit businesses will promote their services on public and well-recognized online platforms, usually with customer reviews and ratings;
– Social media account was just recently created. Not all new websites or accounts are illegal, but scammers have the propensity for deleting old accounts and then will create new accounts, using different names every time;
– Showing IDs that are not government-issued. Many IDs can just be fabricated and therefore may be fake, better ask for government-issued IDs since they are more verifiable;
– Declared address is nonexistent. To verify the address, please call 074-4462009.
