A Regina-based travel agency says it recently fell victim to a major scam involving fake credit cards, costing the local business nearly $300,000.

Hien Duong and his wife, Hannie Hguyen, moved to Canada from Vietnam in 2021. His passion is connecting travellers from North America to his home country.

Duong started Hugo Travel before moving to Canada and continues to operate out of Regina.

“Some Vietnamese people aren’t good at English and they need my help to make the booking for them,” he said. “Maybe they come here for a long time to work or to study, but they want to go back to Vietnam to visit.”

Duong believes having a niche clientele made him a victim of a scam.

In December, he was contacted on social media by a third-party booking agent from the U.S.

The agent was looking to book flights for clients of his own to Vietnam.

“In the beginning I felt something wasn’t right,” Duong told CTV News. “The tickets were one-way and last minute.”

“But he explained why and it sounded reasonable. So I continued to do it,” he added.

Duong says about 100 flights were booked by the scammer, but the travellers and flights were legitimate. However, the booking agent used fake credit cards to pay for the tickets.

“After the trip, [the fraudster] would dispute the transaction,” Duong explained. “I would appeal with the airline and they said the card was fake.”

In total, Hugo Travel has had to pay about $284,000 to multiple airlines in kickback charges. “And it’s increasing,” Duong added.

Hguyen says she’s noticed the toll the situation has taken on her husband.

“He’s very stressed,” she said. “There is a lot of tension because of the issue.”

Duong has filed a report with Regina police which is investigating.

Police told CTV News they cannot provide specific details regarding the ongoing investigation.

However, it added that frauds of this magnitude involving businesses are quite common.

“A lot of the frauds we have specifically dealing with businesses are in the hundreds of thousands of dollars, up to millions of dollars,” officer in charge of financial crimes Sgt. Dave Krieger said. “A lot of the frauds we deal with are bigger corporations and bigger businesses sometimes where money going missing is harder to detect.”

“But it does happen to all sizes of businesses,” he added.

Krieger provided some tips for businesses to help protect themselves from similar schemes.

“Always remain super vigilant,” he recommended. “Before you send products, do a two-factor authentication.”

“Call a known number to verify [transactions]. And if you see links, make sure you’re not clicking anything malicious.”

In the meantime, Duong is hopeful the investigation results in him getting back the money he has lost.

“[Hugo Travel] is my main income,” he said. “I have to find the money to pay so I can continue to do my business. I cannot pay the airline.”

“I can’t do this anymore,” Duong added.

Investigators say, in many cases, insurance companies do not provide coverage when money is sent voluntarily by the business to a scammer.

“But if you’re sending money away, even though you are a victim, there’s generally not a lot of recourse there,” Krieger said. “And the unfortunate thing is, with a lot of fraudsters, the money is gone before we can ever even start our investigation. So [the] chance of recovery is often very low.”