An Australian couple was defrauded of $2,700 during an hour-long massage in Bali, and they took to social media to warn others. While visiting Seminyak, Bali, the Australian woman, who prefers to remain anonymous, scheduled a massage for her and her partner.
The two were dismayed to learn from the many texts they received after giving over their phones to staff that large amounts of money had been fraudulently withdrawn from their accounts when they left the massage session.
“When we got out, our phones had messages about fraudulent transactions — $2,700 has been successfully stolen, which cleaned out our accounts and put us in the negative,” the Australian lady revealed in a Facebook group.
The Australian couple told local media, “What was a great holiday has now turned into a nightmare.”
The woman said that she and her partner’s cards had to be terminated, although their bank could halt two transactions totalling $4,500 and $7,500.
“It has left us with no money, no available cards, and a lot of tears. In addition, the bank cannot promise that we will get the money back while a fraud investigation is ongoing.” she continued.
The Australian woman claimed they decided to end their holiday ahead of schedule and travelled home after the incident.
She told the local Australian media, “Our hotel Marriott has been wonderful, and security and management confronted the massage manager and assisted us with going to the police to make a report for the bank.”
As Bali regains its pre-pandemic appeal, Australian tourists find more and more scams and frauds being utilized by scammers.
Bali travellers have lately been advised to double-check that they are not the victims of visa application fraud.
Numerous tourists have previously fallen victim to visa “agents” and “brokers” who provide overpriced or even false visas to Australians to come to the holiday island.
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