ATAG told about protection from fraudsters when buying an air ticket
Recently, scammers have started using various schemes to deceive people when buying airline tickets. Alexander Bragin, director of the Association of Travel Aggregators (ATAG), told Izvestia on May 20 how not to become a victim of intruders.
"On the eve of the high tourist season, scammers have become more active. Most often, they lure you with discounts of 30-40% or "fair prices" for air tickets. Tourists can write on social networks, or they will find a website or a Telegram bot with attractive prices. They are almost certainly scammers," he said.
Bragin added that you should never pay for an air ticket by transfer to an individual's card — it will be almost impossible to refund the money in this case.
It is worth buying tickets only on large and well-known online services or on airline websites, the expert emphasized. You can verify the authenticity of the site using free ticket verification resources.
"Sometimes tourists are confused by the fact that they find a ticket on aggregators that is not on the airline's website. There is no need to worry — quite often carriers completely give some fares or charter flights to travel agencies for sale," Bragin explained.
The expert advised not to worry if the price on the aggregator turned out to be lower than on the airline's website. Carriers can provide them with wholesale discounts and exclusive fares, which allows online services to set a lower cost, he explained.
On May 16, Emil Ziyadinov, head of tours at the Tutu travel service, told Izvestia about ways to identify unscrupulous tour operators. He advised to study the latest reviews about the tour operator and the living conditions. The expert also noted that the tour operator must be registered as a legal entity or sole proprietor and be included in the Unified Federal Register of Tour Operators.
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