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Bekasi pilgrimage travel agency reported for fraud
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Clients of the PT Solusi Balad Lumampah travel agency show umrah payment documents at the agency headquarters in Bandung, West Java, on Jan. 31. The clients reported the travel agency to the Bekasi Police for alleged fraud. (kompas.com/Agie Permadi )
T
span lang="EN-US" style="mso-ansi-language:EN-US">Travel agency PT Solusi Balad Lumampah (SBL) has been reported to the Bekasi Police in West Java for allegedly defrauding dozens of people who had paid to go on the umrah (Islamic minor pilgrimage).
Seventeen would-be pilgrims filed reports against a director of the company, Suyantini, on Tuesday, after they reportedly failed to go on the umrah on Dec. 24.
Siti Nur Hasanah, one of the customers, said the customers had been asked to transfer Rp 20.5 million (US$1,514) to Suyantini's bank account four months before their planned departure.
Even though the customers had paid in full, the company cancelled the trip without a proper explanation, Siti said according to kompas.com.
The company rescheduled the trip for Dec. 29 and Dec. 31, but the trip was cancelled again.
Siti said she and other customers visited the SBL office on Jl. Chairil Anwar in Bekasi Timur several times to report the incident, but Suyantini was never at the office.
Suyantini then created a WhatsApp chat group and invited the customers, asking them to pay an additional Rp 12 million to go on the umrah.
"We don't want to pay because of the cancelled trips in December," Siti said.
She added that the customers wanted their money back.
Previously, in another case involving a pilgrimage tour operator in West Java, two individuals, AJW and ER, were named as suspects for allegedly defrauding a group of customers of Rp 300 billion.
AJW was a director at PT SBL while ER is an employee. (cal)
