Be On The Alert

The Travel Industry Council of Ontario (TICO) is cautioning both travel agents and travel wholesalers about accepting bookings from an individual using the name “Elizabeth Goertzen.”

According to TICO, this individual has been presenting herself as a travel agent and providing an altered copy of a TICO Registration Certificate to make bookings (online and over the telephone) using third party credit cards that are subsequently charged back. The contact information provided on the bookings is a fax number instead of a telephone number and the domain name on her email is @consultant.com.

TICO’s alert said that reported incidents relate to air only bookings (one-way and round trip) mainly between Columbia, Mexico, the U.S. and various other countries overseas. None of the air tickets originate in Ontario or Canada. All the transactions to date have been paid by a number of different MasterCard accounts.

And TICO is recommending that registrants be extremely cautious when accepting bookings. If you are suspicious about a booking, TICO recommends that you contact the travel agency to confirm whether the travel agent attempting to make the booking is actually employed by that agency.

If your business has been accepting bookings from this individual or you have discovered someone using TICO Registration Certificates inappropriately, please contact TICO at 1-888-451-8426 or email: [email protected]

Go to http://www.tico.ca for more.