VN aviation authority warns over fraud repatriation flights
THE Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam (CAAV ) has warned that Vietnamese people who have been stuck in foreign countries due to the pandemic and wish to get back home should watch out for fake advertisements for tickets on repatriation flights.
Speaking at a meeting organised last week by the Ho Chi Minh City Committee for Overseas Vietnamese, Dao Duy Duong, deputy head of its legal department, said Vietnamese people who have been stuck in foreign countries due to the pandemic should only buy tickets from official sources.
The CAAV said it has received reports of repatriation flight scams in which many people have been contacted with advertisements about foreign airlines organising flights for Vietnamese.
But those international airlines have told CAAV they have organised no such flights while it has not licensed any either, it said.
The Ministry of Public Security is investigating the scams to prevent a recurrence to protect passengers and airlines’ reputation.
Duong said passengers should visit the websites of official agencies such as the Ministry of Transport and the CAAV to get the latest information about repatriation flights.
Recently the Ministry of Foreign Affairs also said that many Vietnamese abroad have fallen victim to scams because they were desperate to return to Vietnam since the pandemic remains unpredictable in many countries.
Vietnamese citizens wishing to return home must register with Vietnamese diplomatic missions in their host country, according to the ministry.
They should follow the guidance provided by the missions, and only buy tickets when they have received an email from their mission saying they could do so, it said.
They should report scams to Vietnamese authorities so that the problem could be tackled, it added.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, when the government started to organise repatriation flights to bring back stranded citizens, diplomatic missions overseas provided detailed information on their websites, according to the ministry.
Vietnam Airlines has announced that it sends all information through emails from its account ending in ‘@vietnamairlines.com’ and people should not buy tickets from suspicious-sounding people or send money to personal bank accounts.
Flight details, ticket prices, payment manner, and related information would be sent to eligible people by diplomatic missions, it said.