Seniors from Duisburg fall for the brazen vacation rip-off!

Seniors from Duisburg fall for the brazen vacation rip-off!

Two seniors from Duisburg were looking forward to a planned trip to the Netherlands, which was announced for October 2024. The excursion, breakfast, lunch and visits to a garden center, a supermarket and a pharmacy included a nice day. But on November 5, 2024, the story took an unexpected turn. Instead of going to Holland, the women were picked up by a van early in the morning and brought to a hotel in Bad Bentheim, where a sales event took place that they had not expected.

The senior citizens were faced with a variety of offers. One of the women bought a mattress for 900 euros, which was originally supposed to cost 2,000 euros. In addition, there was another sales presentation that offered trips for 80 euros, but which were associated with additional "placement fees" of 120 euros per trip. A 76-year-old finally invested in five short trips for a total of 1,000 euros, while her friend acquired a Usedom trip for 1,100 euros in cash. Since they don't have enough cash, they were brought to an ATM after visiting the garden center.

unexpected consequences of the bookings

In the evening of the event, women could not understand the content of the pink forms they had signed. In January 2025 they received mail from the travel company, which requested a deposit of 49.90 euros per booked trip. The 76-year-old then turned to the consumer advice center and learned that it was package tours without a travel safety certificate. This would mean that in the event of the provider's bankruptcy, they would not be entitled to repayment, which was a shocking result for the two women.

The incidents for the elderly are part of a major problem that affects many older people. Older people are often the goal of specific fraud stitches, such as "https://www.verzuser60plus.de/smalungen/so-schuetzen-sich--menschen-vor-abzock/"> Consumer60plus . Typical methods are coffee trips, profit notifications by phone or post as well as trick frauds on the front door. Especially The West emphasizes that coffee trips are often associated with supposedly inexpensive daily trips or travel contain.

tips for protection against rip -off

Consumer protection officers advise to be particularly skeptical when it comes to supposedly cheap trips and information events. Products that are offered there are often overpriced and of inferior quality. Georg Abel from the Consumer Initiative recommends being careful with such events and winnings. Distrust is also appropriate because serious competitions are not linked to conditions such as travel or processing fees. Representatives who appear at the front door or on the phone use various tricks to move their victims to buy or conclude a contract. Therefore, the advice is: don't let yourself be pushed and pull the withdrawal in case of doubt.