Thanks to the arrival of online bus ticketing services such as www.lohce.com, which already has more than 4,000 Cameroonian users, it has become easier for a user to pay for his bus ticket on the internet.
Indeed, in the context of Cameroon, such an online bus ticket purchase service offers several advantages:
- The user earns on average 2 hours of time.
- The user can pay his ticket 24 hours a day, at home after work.
- In addition with www.lohce.com the user can change or cancel and be reimbursed his ticket online without having to go to the agency.
It is therefore normal that these services are quickly adopted by Cameroonians, but also that scams appear online and are developing to deceive Internet users and extort money. In particular, FINEXS Voyages passengers face a vast online scam campaign that is losing money.
It is urgent to know how to recognize a legitimate online service and distinguish it from a scam procedure.
In this article we will
- Introducing the procedure of this scam of FINEXS Voyages tickets online so you can identify them by yourself.
- Introduce the procedure to follow if you are a scammer.
- To present the actions taken by the FINEXS Voyages Head Office to protect its passengers online.
- Show you how to avoid these scams and pay your tickets FINEXS Voyages online securely ..
How do these scams work?
The scam phenomenon of the sale of FINEXS Voyages tickets is not trivial. Many victims pay for it every day. This phenomenon has already been denounced in several articles including this article www.stopblablacam.com of March 19, 2019 and this article published in the newspaper www.leconomie.cm of August 28, 2019
The principle of these scams is to exploit the reputation of Cameroonian transport companies on social networks to guide users to fake ticket reservations.
Currently, the most virulent scam is based on fake FINEXS Voyages pages.
The scammers create FINEXS Voyages pages and enter Orange Money and MTN Money numbers for payment. However, these numbers are not recognized by the General Management of FINEXS Voyages.
In addition, the scammers use retouched official pictures of FINEXS Voyages, taken on the official Facebook page FINEXS Voyages, to animate these fake pages and increase their credibility on Facebook.
For example below is an official photo of FINEXS Voyages available on its official Facebook page
and following a retouched version by the scammers to add their phone numbers for payments.
Here is a non-exhaustive list of fake Facebook pages designed to ransack FINEXS Voyages passengers:
https://www.facebook.com/finexsvoyagesarl
https://www.facebook.com/Finexs237
https://www.facebook.com/Finexs-voyages-112984020054725/
The scam is set up when the user calls one of the numbers mentioned on the fake FINEXS Voyages Facebook page. The user is then put in contact with the scammers who will answer the questions by pretending to be one of the two FINEXS Voyages counters of Mvan in Yaoundé or Akwa in Douala.
The scammers will assist the user to make a manual ticket purchase. They will invite the user to give their personal information for the reservation, namely name, ID card number and phone number. Then they will ask the user to make the payment by making a transfer to a MTN Money or Orange Money account that they will communicate over the phone.
Following the payment, the user will not receive any proof or confirmation of his reservation and the call will be interrupted. If the user starts the call immediately, he will find that the number is no longer available.
The Internet user, with his confirmation of payment sent by the operator, shows up at the agency where neither the head of agency nor the FINEXS Voyages boarding staff are able to confirm this transaction and that is when he realizes the scam.
The victim is then obliged to purchase another ticket at the ticket counter and has no immediate means of claiming reimbursement of the amount sent to the scammers.
The same scam numbers are also displayed in the fake Instagram account FINEXS Voyages SARL (https://www.instagram.com/p/B2hJJnVljXk/)
What should you do if you get scammed?
The first thing to do is to note the phone numbers and names of the people with whom you interacted during the procedure. As well as the name of the recipient of the payment you made.
Indeed, following identification operations made by telephone operators such as MTN and Orange, each Orange or MTN Money number is linked to a real identity. This makes it easy to identify the owner of the account to which you have paid the money.
Contact Orange Money or MTN Money immediately
The operator Orange Cameroon describes how to report a scam here https://www.orange.cm/particuliers/1/27/arnaques-111943.html
You can also watch the latest Orange Money Scam campaign here https://www.facebook.com/watch/?v=2150540618583589
Complain at a police station
The Cameroonian law N ° 2016/007 of June 12th 2016 bearing PENAL CODE https://www.wipo.int/edocs/lexdocs/laws/fr/cm/cm014en.pdf
Article 318: Theft, breach of trust, fraud
Is punishable by imprisonment of five (5) to ten (10) years and a fine of one hundred thousand (100,000) to one million (1,000,000) francs, the one that damages the fortune of others by scam. That is to say by deceptively determining the victim either by maneuvers or by affirming or concealing a fact.
Report the Facebook page
Do not hesitate to report the page on Facebook so that the platform takes appropriate measures.
Here is the procedure to denounce a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/help/355811251195044
What does FINEXS Voyages do to protect its passengers online?
To solve this problem the direction FINEXS Voyages has taken a set of measures in terms of communication and visibility of its brand on various social networks.
First measure
The first step was to create more activity on his official Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/finexsvoyages
Several posts denouncing fake Facebook pages have been published on the official page of FINEXS Voyages including this one https://bit.ly/2nvj6E4
The most recent actions are:
- September 6, 2019 live direct Facebook staff FINEXS Voyages to educate users about these scams
- September 8, 2019 Post to denounce a false announcement of recruitment of hostesses
Second measure
The second step was to make phone numbers available for information:
For the MVAN counter in Yaoundé – 696 94 31 31
For the AKWA counter in Douala – 691 81 79 24
These numbers are also visible on your travel tickets.
Third measure
The third measure put in place by the Executive Management of FINEXS Voyages is the establishment of an official website FINEXS Voyages to better inform its passengers https://www.finexs-voyages.net/
www.finexs-voyages.net lists the online partner services that are the only ones authorized to sell FINEXS Voyages tickets on the Internet.
The online ticket sales service LOHCE appears in the list of services approved by the FINEXS Voyages Executive Management for the sale of FINEXS Voyages online tickets.
Extra tip
Finally, to confirm the credibility of an online service that claims to sell FINEXS Voyages online tickets, watch the posters posted at FINEXS Voyages’ waiting rooms and ticket counters in Mvan Yaoundé and Akwa Douala.
If the service is approved there is a good chance that its poster is visible.
How not to be a victim of these scams?
Pay your ticket online via https://www.lohce.com/finexs
To buy your ticket on www.lohce.com/finexs,
- Please use the search form on the homepage to search for your trip.
- Once you’ve found your trip, select it and fill in the passenger information
- Finally, finish on the payment page where you can select your payment method.
At the end of your payment you will receive an SMS containing your LOHCE code for boarding. You must be at the agency at least 1 hour before boarding with your LOHCE code and identity cards for your identification.
If you specify your email when you buy online, you will also receive an email containing a receipt of your transaction and a digital version of your ticket.
If you have an Android phone, download the free FINEXS Voyages Android app from Google Play: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lesbatisseurs.finexs
Here’s a video (in french) on how to install the Android FINEXS Voyages app
www.youtube.com/watch?v=WnSzoD-sx-o
Do not hesitate to call LOHCE Customer Service at
6 94 61 58 32 (Orange) and 6 78 48 10 66 (MTN)
Conclusion
To avoid 100% getting scammed, you or one of your acquaintances:
- If you have doubts about an online service, do not rush and do some Google searches to see what is on the internet, then when you are in a FINEXS counter in Yaounde or Douala check that you see the posters of the service. question in the waiting room, the posters of the online ticket sales service www.lohce.com are posted there since February 2018
- If you have an Android phone: download the official FINEXS Travel app available for free on Google play (Click here https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.lesbatisseurs.finexs)
- If you do not have an Android phone: Go directly to www.lohce.com/finexs to purchase your ticket
- If you have any questions do not hesitate to contact the FINEXS counters at 696 94 31 31 for Yaoundé and 691 81 79 24 for Douala
- Do not hesitate to contact LOHCE Customer Service. We will be happy to serve you at 6 94 61 58 32 and 6 78 48 10 66
- If you have been scammed, write down the names and phone numbers and the payment number, complain because according to the law these scammers face 5 to 10 years of imprisonment, and feel free to report the Facebook page. question
How do you pay for your FINEXS Travel ticket today? What precaution do you take today to avoid online scams? tell us in the comment below.
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