The Belize Tourism Board has received numerous complaints about fraudulent reservation requests and Con artists receiving tourism services but not making payment. When times are challenging as they have been, we may have the tendency to take risks that are not in keeping with proven deposit and payment policies.

Please be reminded of the following safeguards that cannot guarantee payment but may help to minimize the risk of non-payment.

* Try to establish a relationship where payment has been satisfactorily received from tour operators before extending credit.

* Try to verify new tour operators as legitimate before extending credit (e.g. by affiliations with internationally recognized associations and/or by checking with the Belize Tourism Board if they are familiar with the operator.)

* Be careful of requests that ask you to collect via credit card, more than the amount due and then send payment back to them. (THIS IS AN OLD SCAM AND USUALLY INVOLVES STOLEN CREDIT CARD NUMBERS THAT ARE THEN CHARGED BACK TO YOUR ACCOUNT BY YOUR BANK AFTER YOU HAVE SENT THE REQUESTED PAYMENT BACK TO THE OPERATOR.)

* Report fraudulent activities to the police and file a complaint in the event that the person/company tries to operate within Belize and with other operators.

* Report incidents to the Belize Tourism Board for sharing with other operators.

Kind regards,

Marketing Department
The Belize Tourism Board