Fraudulent Scheme to Duplicate Vacation Voucher Days Nets Over 9 Million AMD from 68 Citizens

A recent case of large-scale fraud has come to light involving numerous victims, with significant sums being embezzled. According to the Investigative Committee (IC), the preliminary investigation launched by the central and Norq-Marash administrative districts revealed that a 30-year-old man, residing in Yerevan, intended to commit fraud. During July and August of 2020, he deceived 68 individuals, stealing various amounts of money from them.

The investigation gathered evidence indicating that during the specified period, the man posted an announcement on the Facebook page of the "Beauty of Armenia Tour" travel company, claiming to operate a nonexistent promotion titled "X+X." The essence of this promotion was that vacation voucher days purchased by customers for September 2020 were allegedly doubled.

Based on this misleading announcement, citizens contacted the 30-year-old, who explained the conditions of the so-called promotion. He instructed them to contact the hotel where participants wished to spend their vacation, to inquire about the price of their preferred accommodation. He then requested that they send the hotel name, number of rooms, and personal information of vacationers via Viber to a provided phone number, and to make a payment equivalent to the cost of two nights for the hotel rooms through one of the payment methods available. After this, his travel agency was supposed to match that amount and confirm bookings for the doubled number of days at the hotel.

To facilitate hotel bookings, citizens sent the required data via the mentioned system, after which they transferred the cost of the hotel room to the bank account or payment method he provided. Subsequently, in order to continue his fraudulent intent without being detected, he made formal reservations at hotels, sending corresponding documentation to the victims. When the payment was not made to the hotel account, the booking was canceled. As a result, he fraudulently received and embezzled funds amounting to a total of 9,340,200 AMD from these citizens.

Based on sufficient evidence gathered, he has been charged under Part 3, Point 1 of Article 178 of the former Criminal Code of Armenia (corresponding to Part 3, Point 3 of Article 255 of the current Criminal Code). His bank accounts and real estate have been seized. During the investigation, the full amount of damages was recovered. The preliminary investigation has been completed, and the materials of the criminal case have been sent to the supervising prosecutor to approve the indictment and forward the case to court.

Note: The accused is presumed innocent until proven guilty in accordance with the law through a legally binding court decision.