WeChat tourist attraction scam back in business
Tourist operators reeling from the pandemic have copped a second hit: the re-emergence of a social media scam which targets the Chinese community with fraudulent offers of discounts to some of Victoria’s most popular attractions.
Advertisements posted on China’s ubiquitous social media platform WeChat reveal the extent of the racket, with Global Ballooning Australia, Geelong Adventure Park and ski operators at Mt Buller, Falls Creek and Mt Hotham all subject to fake promotions in recent months.
The well-organised scam has also targeted Jetstar airlines, Coles and Dan Murphy retail outlets, the Sea World theme park on the Gold Coast and the Sydney Zoo.
Although tourist operators have strengthened their defences against fraud with improved processes for identifying suspicious transactions and customer authentication, they are frustrated that criminal syndicates continue to exploit gaps in Australia’s banking system and law enforcement.
“The surprising thing is this has been going on for a long time and there has never been any significant measures to try and shut this down,″ Victorian Tourism Industry Council chief executive Felicia Mariani told The Sunday Age.
“It is hugely detrimental for our attraction sector within an industry that has been hammered. Right now, these guys can’t afford this kind of activity to be happening to them and we need to try to protect them in every way we can.″
Global Ballooning Australia, a business which markets heavily to Chinese tourists, estimates it has lost up to $50,000 to the scam over the past five years. Owner Kiff Saunders, who brought the racket to the attention of the banking royal commission, said the fraudsters disappeared for a time but are back in business, with the New Year ushering in a spate of dodgy bookings.
The scam works like this. A fake travel company places a sponsored ad on WeChat offering a discounted ticket or promotional offer for a popular tourist attraction. Unsuspecting customers – often Chinese students – transfer money into an Australian bank account held by the fake company. The fraudsters then book the attraction in the customer’s name using stolen credit card details.
If the scam is detected before the customer makes use of their ticket, the customer is out of pocket. More commonly, it takes days or weeks for the real card owner to discover they have been charged for something they didn’t buy and contact the bank. In this instance, the bank cancels the transaction and the tourist operator is left out of pocket.
An Adelaide woman who asked not to be named was shocked to discover earlier this year she had been charged $1385 for a balloon ride over Melbourne and hundreds of dollars for tickets to Luna Park, Melbourne Zoo, Kryal Castle and Sydney’s Taronga Zoo in the week after Christmas, despite having not left South Australia.
Data collected by AusPayNet, the industry regulator for Australia’s payments network, shows money lost to card-not-present fraud, where stolen credit card details are used without the card itself being presented, declined by 14 per cent last financial year. This coincided with merchants and financial institutions developing a fraud mitigation framework to bolster their detection and prevention mechanisms.
However, card-not-present fraud remains the most prevalent type of credit fraud, accounting for $392 million in reported losses last financial year.
Mr Saunders said the fact fraudsters used Australian bank accounts to collect payments from customers suggested banks could be doing more to stamp out the practice. “How is it that they can just facilitate this?” he asked.
A spokesperson for Westpac said the bank was unable to comment on “individual customer matters″ but said the bank had “robust processes″ to protect against scams and fraud.
Operators such as Global Ballooning Australia have become more adept at identifying suspicious bookings, which are often made at short notice. In response, the fraudsters have upped their game.
In one instance in January, scammers responded to a request for customer authentication by supplying a photo-shopped drivers licence. The only giveaway, spotted by a sharp-eyed staff member, was the address on the licence: 17 Sample Parade.
“We know that fraudsters don’t give up,″ AusPayNet chief executive Andy White said. “The message to operators is ‘speak to your bank.’ If you use a payment gateway or payment service provider speak to them because they can help you on this.″
John Forman, the former manager of the Eureka Skydeck, blew the whistle on the scam in 2016. He said he received little support from law enforcement agencies, with state and federal authorities each referring the problem to the other’s jurisdiction.
“It is incredibly frustrating,” he said. “The visitor economy has gone through hell and back and in Victoria, continues to go through hell, and we are still having to face fraudulent activity via a WeChat platform with dodgy people ripping tourism operators off.”
A Victorian Police spokesman said its fraud and extortion squad was unaware of the WeChat scam and the Australian Competition and Consumer Commission’s Scamwatch website said it had not received any reports about it.
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Chip Le Grand is The Age’s chief reporter. He writes about crime, sport and national affairs, with a particular focus on Melbourne.
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