Need Help regarding Airlinktravel

[MEL_Traveller]

Thanks all. I fear he may have lost his money. It is truly bad that someone can lose so much money when trying to visit family. And no way to realistically get it back. Seems wrong that someone can have so much money scammed, without any recourse to the law. I have pounded him with the idea to in future only use credit cards. But he was simply thinking he had found a cheap travel way. Please tell everyone that this site is shonky.

There is a recourse, but it would involve Victoria Police and filing a report for theft. Won’t necessarily get money back but it might get the site shut down to prevent the same thing happening to others.

Has the friend called the airline with all the details to see if they have a record of the booking? It’s possible the agency is just really really bad at communication?

 

[jpp42]

While it won't help you get the money back , you should still report the site to the ACCC here: Report a scam . This could lead to the web site being shut down (or at least stripped of ability to use the ".com.au" suffix - they could move to some other top level domain).

 

[vpm]

I question re a possible travel scam.

A friend recently tried to book cheap fares to India using an online site called AirLinkTravel. They got him to pay upfront, but tickets never arrived. He is frantic. Is this a scam site? It is so hard to know. they now do not answer his emails, and hang up when he calls.

yes AirlinkTravel is a fraud and a scam now they have disconnected their phone as well ..well supported by ING bank of Australia . Beware to deal with ING Bank , they have many fraud accounts

 

[vpm]

I am victim of Scam by AirLinks Travel Agents , Cheap flights from australia to worldwide | cheap flights To Thailland | Cheap flights to kathmandu | Cheap flights to mumbai – Book Your Tickets to Katmandu and Hotels. Buy Best Discount Offers To Mumbai and Worldwide. Bokk Your Airlines Tickets With Us.. Mr Bob Wilson , phone number +61 2 8005 8001 called me and we discussed the flights schedule from Syd to New Delhi for 28th December . There was a deal offered for $2134.00 by Bob Wilson on Friday 16th December 2022 and on Monday I recd the email with bank details where the money to be transferred from Bob wilson , all emails attached . I made the payment on Monday 19th December as per bank details and I was told the tickets will be issued in 24 hours ..Tickets never arrived and I have not recd any email or phone call from Bob Wilson . Also I have called the phone and send numerous emails but no one is answering. I think I have been cheated by Airlinks Travel agency . The Bank they are operating is with ING Bank of Australia .

 

[jpp42]

Sorry to hear vpm, do make sure you have reported the transaction as fraudulent to your bank.
Also you should make a police report at your local police station (the bank may ask you to do so), and you should also report it here :
Report a scam
The fact that the web site is still live means not enough people have been doing this.

I suppose you've learned your lesson, but in the future make sure you do a bit more research before booking with an "unknown" company, such as checking for reviews. Also there are a number of red flags on their web site - namely that the supposed address is in the UK, while they have an Australian phone number and web site. You can also look up their ABN and see they are an Australian company so it makes no sense to list a UK address. This is more advanced - but also the fact that the ABN is not registered for GST is suspicious, as any reputable travel company would have enough revenue to be required to register for GST.

 

[dajop]

Sounds legit with a blurb like below. Not! Terrible for the victims only thing that can be done is report them.

Air Links Travel the main name in the field of voyaging, giving client administrations online to going all over the planet. Our primary inclination is to colossal client’s fulfillment and upgrade our administration quality by assisting clients with accomplishing the most noteworthy incentive for our items.

Our capable expert advisors are available with replies to all of your movement questions, effortlessly.

 

[vpm]

There is a recourse, but it would involve Victoria Police and filing a report for theft. Won’t necessarily get money back but it might get the site shut down to prevent the same thing happening to others.

Has the friend called the airline with all the details to see if they have a record of the booking? It’s possible the agency is just really really bad at communication?

The matter has been reported to NSW Police but police is not as smart as the scammers ..they get stuck in their own internal process and Scammers take the advantage of knowing how slow the police works . Scammers are able to create their own ABN number and open bank account using the fake company name and more shocking is Bank allow them to open and operate and do not do any background checks on the company . So its not just the scammer , whole system is responsible to encourage these fraud people to operate so easily targeting innocent people of Australia

Post automatically merged: Jan 4, 2023

ABN of AirLinks Travel registered with ASIC .

 

[jpp42]

more shocking is Bank allow them to open and operate and do not do any background checks on the company

Banks have "Know your Customer" laws and they are required to have ID on who operates the account. The police will be able to access this information once they are in contact with the fraud team at the bank. Yes, it takes time and you have no guarantee of getting your money back, but I'm not sure what else you're expecting. There is no requirement in Australia for anyone to have a "background check" simply to open an account that accepts deposits, nor am I aware of that being common in other countries. As you note, the ABN seems properly registered (it's not just a made up number on their web site) so there is also a paper trail there - someone had to register it and the police can work with ASIC to find out who. Though it's possible that it's been used fraudulently (i.e. an innocent party's ABN has been stolen).

For better or for worse, it is up to the consumer to check on things before sending money to a bank account. You should generally only send money via direct bank transfer to people you trust - that's why we have other systems like credit cards, Bpay, even Paypal for paying money to companies, as these have better protections. Again, I am sorry you have had to go through this and wish you the best of luck in getting your money back.

Everyone reading this should report this web site to Scamwatch - the ACCC has the power to take it down by informing the operator of the scam, but hasn't done so yet. Please help out and raise the profile of this issue with the ACCC so more innocent people don't get scammed.

 

[vpm]

Banks have "Know your Customer" laws and they are required to have ID on who operates the account. The police will be able to access this information once they are in contact with the fraud team at the bank. Yes, it takes time and you have no guarantee of getting your money back, but I'm not sure what else you're expecting. There is no requirement in Australia for anyone to have a "background check" simply to open an account that accepts deposits, nor am I aware of that being common in other countries. As you note, the ABN seems properly registered (it's not just a made up number on their web site) so there is also a paper trail there - someone had to register it and the police can work with ASIC to find out who. Though it's possible that it's been used fraudulently (i.e. an innocent party's ABN has been stolen).

For better or for worse, it is up to the consumer to check on things before sending money to a bank account. You should generally only send money via direct bank transfer to people you trust - that's why we have other systems like credit cards, Bpay, even Paypal for paying money to companies, as these have better protections. Again, I am sorry you have had to go through this and wish you the best of luck in getting your money back.

Everyone reading this should report this web site to Scamwatch - the ACCC has the power to take it down by informing the operator of the scam, but hasn't done so yet. Please help out and raise the profile of this issue with the ACCC so more innocent people don't get scammed.

thanks however as regard the Banks , the KYC and AML compliances are done regularly , which , in this case would have been done , the account would have been flagged /blocked immediately . Every bank have their own fraud investigation team who need to ensure that if forged activities have been notified to the bank , the team should take immediate action . Police should be able to track down the fraud company owner if Bank support police in thier investigation .

Yes , your are absolutely right to use credit card / Bpay or paypal when dealing with companies dealing only in online activities as they have better protection and it is a trigger for everyone if companies insist only online transfer via bank account.
ACCC , AFCA , NSW Fair Trading , IDRE and other appropriate authorities are informed however national news channels should show in their current affairs so that people get more vigilant .

 

[vpm]

Is it this online site?

Air Link Travel – Best Cheap Flight Deals | Hotels

www.airlinktravel.com.au

yes this is the site used by Scammer

 

[salimedwardo]

the OP's friend will probably be told the payment is "missing" and "what's the account vps usa provider details you paid from"...

 

[utsc]

Scam is still alive.

Website is still alive and phone is working.

This should be escalated to AFP as this scam running across states

I receive a quote $200 cheaper than all the websites from the following email.
vijay.patel@xx_
61 2 xx_X 1807

Vijay Patel took a screen shot from another booking site and sent it to me

Vijay Patel

Customers Sales Representative

Phone: +61 2 xx_X 1807

xx_ ABN: 67 xx_ xx_758

 

[San]

Scam is still alive.

Website is still alive and phone is working.

This should be escalated to AFP as this scam running across states

I receive a quote $200 cheaper than all the websites from the following email.
vijay.patel@xx_
61 2 xx_X 1807

Vijay Patel took a screen shot from another booking site and sent it to me

Vijay Patel

Customers Sales Representative

Phone: +61 2 xx_X 1807

xx_ ABN: 67 xx_ xx_758

This has been reported to Victoria and NSW Police in December.

 

[San]

This has been reported to Victoria and NSW Police in December.

Additionally, complaint has been lodge in December with ACCC (ABN is still active), ACMA (phone numbers are blocked but website is still active), their bank account details are protected by privacy legislation. Altogether, they are still doing their business. May be by next month they will have different name for the same business.

 

[Forg]

I’ve not bought tickets online in 5 years … but at that time I used either Kayak or SkyScanner to search & the direct me to the selected seller. I have to say, all the best priced sites looked & felt unprofessional and scammy; I was probably stupid in buying from one when I think about it. In fact when I tried to log into the Air China site with my China Airlines flight-references(*) & it didn’t work, I did panic a little for exactly the looks-scammy reason ‘til I worked out what I’d done …

If real sites look like scam sites & people have bought from scammy-looking sites successfully for years, I can see how the scam would work!


(*) speaking of scams, when I searched China Airlines on Google during that period, Air China would come up as the first result … Air China obviously paying to be a higher-priority search-result than China Airlines.

 

[UP4014]

If only we knew the location if in Australia, we could go around for a ‘chat’ I think it used to be called.

 

[jpp42]

(*) speaking of scams, when I searched China Airlines on Google during that period, Air China would come up as the first result … Air China obviously paying to be a higher-priority search-result than China Airlines.

Air China has 490 aircraft versus 88 for China Airlines, Google also takes into account what it thinks people want and Air China is a much bigger operation. (Though possibly China Airlines may be as popular for English speakers, since Air China's huge domestic network is the majority of those 490.)

But currently when I search for China Airlines, Air China is not showing up on the first page - the first five hits are all for the correct Taiwanese airline, and the others are general articles/sites about air travel in Greater China in general, with the one other airline that appears is China Southern. So actually I can't say that Air China's SEO (in English Google) is all that great.

 

[dajop]

Might at least be worth leaving a review here if regulatory action proves futile ..

Be the first to write a review about Airlinktravel.

Your insights can help this company and all of your fellow shoppers.

au.trustpilot.com