Dozens of residents of Aktobe were unable to fly abroad for their vacations: after paying for tours, the company stopped communicating, reports the website infohub.kz.
Tourists claim millions in damages. The residents of Aktobe had planned to spend their holidays in Turkey, Egypt, and Georgia, but ended up staying home.
"We bought a tour to Antalya from August 5 to 13, for seven days. The flight was from Almaty. My family and I arrived in Almaty, and they promised to send us the tickets. But a day before the flight, they suddenly told us that our tour was canceled. I paid the company about 2 million tenge," said Asylbek Duisenbekov.
The travel agency was recommended to clients by friends and acquaintances. Many of them had used its services before and had successfully traveled abroad.
According to the victims, at first the managers postponed meetings and promised to resolve issues with trips, and then stopped answering calls and messages altogether.
Currently, the victims are uniting and filing reports with the police. The first complaint against the travel agency was filed on August 6, and as of today, 17 people have officially filed reports. The police are investigating the whereabouts of the company's owner, whom some knew personally.
"The police department is conducting a pre-trial investigation into the fact of fraud. Operational search measures are also being carried out to establish the whereabouts of the suspect, whose identity has been established," said Erbolat Sarkulov, head of the press service of the Aktobe Regional Police Department.