Janset Hanım’s Perfect Vacation That Couldn’t Happen

From the notebook of a trademark-patent attorney

Janset Hanım’s Perfect Vacation That Couldn’t Happen

Janset Hanım works as a senior manager at a company in Istanbul. Overwhelmed by the intensity of her work life, Janset Hanım also decides to have a relaxing vacation at a nice hotel in order to reward her children for their excellent pass degree.

After researching for a while which hotels could offer the best vacation, Janset Hanım finally decides to make a reservation at Hotel X, which is renowned for its service quality in Turkey.

Although Hotel X is quite expensive, it is a “Deluxe All Inclusive” hotel.

Janset Hanım, who attaches great importance to doing research, reads news and customer opinions about Hotel X for a while and is thoroughly convinced: The score the hotel received from customer reviews clearly shows that it is one of the best hotels in the country.

This hotel is an ideal hotel where she can have a luxurious vacation, just as she wants. There are many activities for her children, and the open buffet meals with delicious dishes have been highly praised in the reviews. Unlimited bar services including aged drinks 24 hours a day will make his wife very happy.

 He decides to buy a suite room with a jacuzzi. A luxurious holiday with his family will allow him to get away from the stress of business life, even if only for a while. There is no doubt that both his family and Mrs. Janset deserve this holiday to the fullest. He immediately types the name of Hotel X into the search engine. He clicks on the website with the name of the hotel from the list that appears.

Mrs. Janset is very lucky. Despite booking during the high season, the hotel offers both early booking discounts and special discounts for the day the reservation is made.

She chooses a suite room with a sea view. The room looks amazing. There is also a separate bedroom for her children.

She is very happy to have caught the special and early booking discounts. She fills out the form on the website. She immediately confirms her reservation by calling the phone number she sees on the website. She doesn’t want to waste any time; moreover, the discount provides a considerable saving for her budget. The person she speaks to on the phone informs Mrs. Janset that she needs to pay the fee in advance for this reservation to be valid. Mrs. Janset makes the payment immediately, dreaming of the holiday she has created.

Mrs. Janset is very happy to have made a reservation at a luxurious hotel like Hotel X, and at a relatively affordable price. Her husband will be very surprised and, as always, will appreciate her, and will proudly tell her how skilled his wife is.

And it happens just as she predicted.

 Both her husband and the friends she tells the reservation story to appreciate her skill. She is a successful woman. Moreover, she is always lucky.

After months, finally, Janset Hanım, her husband and children find themselves in their magnificent hotel by the sea. The hotel is much more beautiful than they expected. The lobby lounge is very striking. It is furnished with extraordinary luxury. They head to the reception. Janset Hanım mentions the reservation she made months ago and wants to check in.

However, there is a hitch. The receptionist who took the IDs of Ms. Janset and her family cannot find the names of Ms. Janset and her family in the records.

She asks Ms. Janset for the name of the person she talked to, if possible, the number she talked to and the account number she made the payment.

Ms. Janset is a cautious woman. She has written down information such as the phone number she called during the reservation, the name of the person she talked to. She also has the bank receipt she made the payment with. She gives it all to the receptionist. However; She slowly starts to get angry. She starts to say, “What kind of disorganization is this? How do you keep your records?”

The receptionists are very polite. However, as they examine the documents in their hands, their smiling faces turn sad and sad.

After a little research, it is understood that the person who introduced himself as a hotel staff member with whom Ms. Janset made the reservation is not actually a hotel staff member. He has nothing to do with the hotel. The phone number Ms. Janset called does not belong to the hotel. The bank account number to which the accommodation fee was deposited does not belong to the hotel either.

Unfortunately, Ms. Janset was scammed.

She was directed to a website that was completely fake and had nothing to do with the hotel, but was imitating the name of the hotel. She called the hotel from the phone number on the fake site and spoke to a professional scammer, and with the scammer’s guidance, she deposited a small fortune into a fake account, thinking she was depositing the hotel’s accommodation fee.

Ms. Janset does not want to accept what happened to her at first. She blames the hotel and the hotel staff. But, unfortunately, she is not right.

There is a great disappointment on the faces of her entire family. All their eyes are on her, they all expect an explanation from her. “How did she make this mistake?” “How did a successful businesswoman like her not understand that she was scammed?” “How did she lose a small fortune and ruin her family’s vacation?”

After the situation is completely revealed, Ms. Janset, who is helpless and feels alone, desperately asks the hotel staff to “help her.” “Both she and her family are in a very bad situation.” “She ruined her family’s vacation with a mistake she made.” She also blames the hotel. “How could the hotel not take precautions against such fraud?” “It just stands by and watches its customers being scammed.”

She cannot stop the tears from flowing from her eyes. Her mouth is dry from the stress she is experiencing. She has difficulty speaking.

She collapses into a chair… asks for something to drink. There must be something to be done. She asks for help from the hotel staff…

The hotel staff try to explain that they can do nothing for the accommodation fee they paid. However, they say that they can try to make arrangements for the family to stay, even though the hotel is full, on condition that they pay the accommodation fee.

However, for the second time, Janset’s family is not in a position to set aside a budget for a holiday. In fact, even if they had a budget, they are no longer in a position to go on a holiday.

Janset is in an indescribable sadness. Her husband’s words of consolation are useless. She is disappointed because the family has been waiting for this moment for months. They are left standing in front of the hotel with their suitcases, bags, and beach toys in their hands.

She took leave from work for this holiday and shopped for her children. In addition, she paid a considerable fee; she thought she had really made a reservation. Janset wants to get her money back and see these people punished.

It is not possible for Janset to demand the payment she made from Hotel X: after all, the Hotel has no responsibility in the defrauding. The fraudsters copied the website of Hotel X exactly, created an impression as if they were working at Hotel X, and demanded payment from Ms. Janset.

In the situation that emerged, the Hotel is undoubtedly the victim. It is very clear that such fraudulent transactions will deeply shake the image of the hotel and damage the trust in the hotel, as well as losing customers.

It is never acceptable for the name of the hotel to be in the news through customers who are victims of fake websites. It is a situation that can cause serious reputation loss.

⮚ So… What Can Ms. Janset Do Now?

Ms. Janset first goes to the police and files a criminal complaint. She reports all the receipts she has, the conversations with the people, the names the people have reported, and the name of the relevant website to the police.

Then, she resorts to getting legal help from experts in the field of information technology law.

Unfortunately, more than one person like Ms. Janset is victimized in fraud cases. Due to the increasing number of files due to numerous complaints, investigations take a long time. The technical methods used by fraudsters and the redirection of fake sites through different countries can make investigations inextricable.

There will be nothing left for Ms. Janset to do after the complaint.

 The investigation is now in the hands of a cumbersome state structure that is unfortunately far from understanding internet crimes and the reflex to take precautions against rapidly developing internet crimes.

Even if the defendants are caught years later, the horse has already passed Üsküdar. Ms. Janset’s money has probably already been shared and spent among the fraudsters.

The important thing is not to fall into the situation of Ms. Janset. So what can we do to avoid experiencing what happened to Ms. Janset? What kind of precautions can we take?

⮚ What could Ms. Janset have done to avoid being scammed?

 It is not easy to understand whether a website is fake or not at first glance. However, there are some ways to apply. In order not to fall into the situation of Ms. Janset, it would be appropriate to pay attention to the following details:

First; It is the padlock icon in the address bar of the website (in the box where the address is located). If this padlock is green, the site is generally a secure website. In some cases, this padlock icon may be yellow and/or have a “warning triangle”, or the padlock icon may be broken. If the padlock icon is any color other than green, has a cross on it, or has a warning next to it, it indicates that the website is not secure.