Alert for “montaviajes”. It was the Cyber Police Unit of the Secretariat of Citizen Security (SSC) of Mexico City that identified this scam.
What are “mountains”?
According to the results of the monitoring and patrolling actions of the SSC, it is a type of operation of the so-called “montages”, which impersonate the identity of pages and profiles of travel agencies and defraud their victims by offering to buy their timeshares.
How do the “montages” work?
to fool the userscybercriminals pose as a travel agentwho mentions that he has a possible buyer of his timeshare, with an attractive offer, which exceeds the real price of the property, despite not having made any offer.
People who have been victims of the scam indicate that they received purchase documents very similar to the legitimate ones and, once the deal is made, the supposed agent requests that one or several transfers of funds be made. money to cover the costs of processing the sale and commissions.
Though, the sale never materializes and the probable agent disappears.
How to avoid being a victim of this fraud?
The SSC encourages netizens to follow the following recommendations:
• Avoid entering websites through links or advertisements that come from suspicious emails, from unknown senders or on social networks.
• Do not pay commissions in advance.
• Verify that the travel agency is registered with the Ministry of Tourism and has real offices.
• Check your references in Profeco.
• Verify characteristics of web pages to identify their veracity, such as checking colors, fonts, spelling errors observed on the page.
• Do not fill out forms with personal information, especially messages that do not come from official email accounts.
• Do not trust attractive offers or those below their price.
How to report this travel scam?
The SSC reminds citizens that, in case of detecting the “montaviajes”, you must go immediately to present the corresponding complaint before any agent of the Public Ministry.
And, in case of observing any suspicious advertisement or an irregular application, contact the Cyber Police Unit at policia.cibernetica@ssc.cdmx.gob.mx or by phone at 5242 5100 ext. 5086, where you will be attended 24 hours a day, 365 days a year.
The Cyber Police of the SSC has received around 10 reports each month, for the topic of vacation packages.
