On September 19, the Federal Trade Commission announced that one of the owners of Your Travels and Tours had settled charges that she operated a travel scam targeting the immigrant community of Massachusetts. According to the FTC the owners, Abul Khayer and his wife, Umme Salma Momtaz Alam, placed ads in immigrant community publications offering low-cost international airfares. Consumers who responded were offered tickets ranging from $1,100 to $1,700 on the condition that they paid immediately. They were promised that Your Travels and Tours would deliver the tickets within a few days. However, the FTC alleged that the defendants neither delivered tickets nor offered refunds to their customers.
The FTC filed civil charges in March, 1997, and the US Attorney in Massachusetts filed criminal charges against the defendants. Both were convicted of criminal wire and mail fraud. Umme Salma Momtaz Alam agreed to settle the civil charges filed by the FTC. She will have to pay $84,4393.50 in consumer redress, post a performance bond of $150,000, and notify the FTC before resuming employment in the travel industry. Abul Khayer has not settled the FTC’s charges but is currently incarcerated in a federal penitentiary as a result of his criminal wire and mail fraud conviction.
For more information on this case, check out the FTC press release.
If you have questions on travel fraud or would like to report an incident, please call NCL’s National Fraud Information Center/Internet Fraud Watch at 1-800-876-7060 or use one of our online forms.
To read more about travel fraud, visit our telemarketing travel fraud and Internet travel fraud tipsheets. You should also read the FTC’s brochure on travel fraud.
NOTE: This stipulated final judgment and order is for settlement purposes only and does not constitute an admission by the defendant of a law violation. Consent judgments have the force of law when signed by the judge.
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