Internet Booking Precaution

Avoid Fake internet Frauds – Holiday Booking Rwanda

Many travelers suffer internet scams booking holidays online and sending payment to people you have never met, more so to a very distant new location in Africa! Unlike the west where many people are computer literates, it is different down here in Africa, only the elite class can know the process of creating, publishing and maintaining a web page online. Most IT trained people in East Africa lack knowledge about travel services; hence the risk level of holiday booking internet frauds is less here.

But there are situations where your travel arrangements could turn into a scam e.g. the tour operator diverts your funds to different activities instead of your trip and can not rescue your travel arrangements in time, less experienced tour operators that may quote less than actual needed funds etc. Below are some tips to make sure you are traveling with the right tour operator in Uganda or Rwanda:

#1. Use internet tools like www.whois.com to establish how long their website domain name has been active online. Websites belonging to internet fraudsters are barely a year or more old from the date of registration because they keep closing websites and opening new ones as authorities follow them up.

#2. You can tell a genuine tour manager by the level of their feel knowledge. You can test this by tasking one to answer open questions about the itinerary, flight schedules, Hotel reservations etc. For example; where should our trip begin? The answers you get can help you know if you are dealing with a rightful person or not.

#3. Always choose to send payment by Bank Wire transfer instead of credit card payments and other common money transfer methods like western union, money gram etc. Using a Bank transfer is better because your money can be rescued in case the transaction turns out fraudulent and make sure you send money only to a registered company Bank account. As a risk averse person you have a right to ask for copies of documents to verify their company is registered e.g the certificate of incorporation etc.

#3. Ask the tour operator to send you scans of your gorilla trekking permit soon as possible; this helps you to make sure your holiday arrangements are under way and on schedule because one may choose to buy your permits at a later date to which gorilla trekking permits might not be available.

#4. It is advisable to travel with companies that are registered with some of the major tourism organizations in their respective countries e.g. a company registered with AUTO (association of uganda tour operators) is most likely to be genuine and also tracking them down is easy in case you get a problem with any. However there are many good operators not registered with auto.

#5. Always do enough research and gather some information about your holiday destination before contacting any tour operator. This can help you have a rough idea about what to expect, itinerary, genuine pricing among other pieces of information. For more information about planning a trip to Uganda or Rwanda Click here – Contact Us »