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THE INDONESIAN Hotel and Restaurant Association (PHRI) announced recently that there was a data forgery of Google Business accounts that affected a number of hotels in different regions of Indonesia.
According to PHRI chairman Hariyadi BS Sukamdani, the hacking occurred in a number of regions, including West Sumatra, Riau, South Sumatra, Riau Islands, Banten, Jakarta, West Java, Central Java, Yogyakarta, East Java, Bali, South Sulawesi, and other regions.
“It happened in a number of regions, earlier it was reported that 92 hotels were affected in East Java, 156 hotels in Central Java, eight hotels in Lampung, and we are still collecting data in other regions,” Hariyadi said in a recent press conference.
Hariyadi said that in response to this incident, the PHRI Central Board (BPP) plans to immediately report to the police at both the national and regional levels. This report will be made by the Regional Management Board (BPD) and Branch Management Board (BPC) of PHRI through the local police and resort police.
In addition, he said, hotel management that are victims of data falsification will provide information to the public through various channels such as social media and the company’s website. “So that consumers are careful when making reservations at hotels through Google Business accounts,” he said.
The type of data falsification carried out is by replacing the phone number on the hotel’s Google Business account with a WhatsApp number, as well as replacing the bank account number and other information related to room reservations.
Hariyadi assessed that this condition has the potential to cause fraud for consumers who are not vigilant. In fact, it was reported that there were 10 consumers in Central Java who were victims of this scam.
PHRI urged members of the public making hotel reservations to immediately contact the official channels of the hotel in question to avoid falling prey to fraud. PHRI also stressed the importance of making payments through the hotel’s official account and urged consumers to always verify the account number before making a transaction.
The hotel is not responsible for any fraud that occurs due to information that has been changed in the Google Business account. PHRI also hopes that Google will take immediate action to address this data forgery to prevent more victims from being affected.
For now, PHRI is encouraging hotels to immediately report inaccurate information through the “Suggested Edits” feature on Google Business accounts and to report fraudulent actions through the “Business Redressal Complaints” feature.
In addition, hotels are encouraged to verify the person in charge of their business account through Google My Business Verified. [antaranews/photo traveltext.id]
