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Since the beginning of time, there have always been people out there that cheat other people for their hard-earned money, and now officials in Cancun are warning tourists of a new fraud scam involving a company posing as Apple Leisure Group. The group is one of the most popular in the vacation industry, offering multiple services for providers of vacation products as well as for travelers themselves. Millions of people booking vacations each year do so at one of ALG’s affiliated properties and hundreds of companies use ALG for brand management, technology solutions, and vacation product distribution.
It is the very fact that Apple Leisure Group is such a popular household name that this group of individuals is able to be so successful in their attempts to defraud travelers planning their vacations. The impersonators pretending to be from ALG are currently using the company’s name but with a fraudulent phone number, email, and physical address. The email is similar to the real email address but easily distinguishable for those that take the time to look the real company up online.
According to officials from the National Commission for the Protection and Defense of Users of Financial Services, or Condusef, the impersonators are located in offices in the Cancun Hotel Zone, but the offices of the legitimate company are actually in the center of the city of Cancun. The email address, while official-looking in nature, uses the Apple Leisure name but this is where the similarities end, with the fraudulent email “appleleisurefinanciera.com.mx” being noticeably different than the real one, which is “appleleisuregroup.com.” These two differences between the fake company and the real one, the physical address and the email address, are the key indicators for travelers to use to distinguish between the two companies.
The warning put out to possible customers of ALG products, made by Osmaida Santiago Leonel, the head of the Quintana Roo Condusef unit, stated that “What they do is the impersonation of their commercial name and even of some of their fiscal or administrative data. So far this year there are 49 cases that have been reported by the Condusef at the national level, including cases from Quintana Roo like this one.” This is why it is important to be vigilant when receiving messages or phone calls from companies claiming to be Apple Leisure Group.
ALG has a collection of popular travel brands used by vacation product consumers, many of which are frequented by travelers visiting Cancun. One of the most popular brands is AMR Resorts, consisting of Secrets Resorts & Spas, Dreams Resorts & Spas, Breathless Resorts & Spas, Zoëtry Wellness & Spa Resorts, Alua Hotels & Resorts, and Sunscape Resort & Spas.
Other popular travel brands affiliated with Apple Leisure Group include:
- Apple Vacations
- BeachBound
- Blue Sky Tours Hawaii
- CheapCaribbean
- Funjet Vacations
- Southwest Vacations
- Travel Impressions
- Trisept Solutions
- United Vacations
- Unlimited Vacation Club
Visitors to Cancun can find a wide variety of affiliated resorts in the city, many in the Cancun Hotel Zone area. This is the most popular area for tourists in the city because it is close to the beaches and also numerous restaurants and bars. These are the most sought out attractions in Cancun and the reason many people visit the city.
The Cancun Hotel Zone is home to close to 100 different hotels, some ultra-luxury, some more family-oriented, and even some designed for adults only in mind. Whatever vacation can be dreamed up in the mind of the traveler, it can be found there. With so many options, though, it’s easy to get lost in the fun of planning and travelers might be more apt to let their guard down. Knowing what scams are out there is the first step to successful planning and an amazing vacation in this beautiful Mexican Caribbean destination.
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