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Agnes Lam

People who have joined forces online after falling victim to an apparent travel club scam are to seek their money back in court tomorrow.   
Sixteen people will appear in  the District Court  in Wan Chai for a civil claim over alleged losses of about HK$100,000 from one company. One person, Benny Lam, said he had received 400 requests for help from victims on his blog, but that only half of them had revealed contact information and the amount of money lost. 
People have filed complaints to the Consumer Council  and sought help from police. 
Based on information collected by Lam, the Neighbourhood and Workers' Service Centre,  which is helping the complainants, said about 200 people had fallen  for  the scam, involving about HK$2 million. 
The centre  said three other firms were involved in the scam. 
About 20 people marched to  a company office at the Maxwell Centre in Tsim Sha Tsui yesterday.  They chanted slogans demanding refunds and that contracts be terminated, but the company was closed. 
The complainants  had been contacted by the company by phone,  inviting them to do a survey and visit its office to collect a gift. 
Lam received such a call in December last year. 
'When I got to the office, I was given a 90-minute talk on purchasing a travel club membership that cost about HK$20,000,' he said.
 'I refused to join and the staff charged me HK$8,800 for administration fees because they said they spent so much time introducing the scheme to me.'
 The company claimed it had more than 100 five-star hotels around the world and members could stay at them at discounted rates, Lam said. 
'They turned off my phone. I gave them my credit card out of confusion and fear,' he said. 
'I went to the office again the next day demanding  my money back, but they threatened to sue me. 
'I felt so scared and I didn't know what to do. So I signed a contract that stated I had to pay HK$20,000 for the membership.' 
Lam did not pay for the membership and sought  lawmakers' help. 
Alice Chan, who joined the travel club membership scheme in December 2007, said she was told the membership fee was HK$83,000 when she went to the office. 
'I paid HK$9,000 as a  deposit and then HK$1,000 for the first instalment. I stopped the monthly bank payments after I went to Cebu for a week last year and stayed at a hotel that the company had booked for me. I paid nearly HK$10,000 and it was not a five-star hotel.'
After stopping the payments, Chan started receiving calls from the company and people claiming to be debt collectors. 
Lawmaker Leung Yiu-chung, who is helping the victims, urged police to investigate the cases. 'Members of the public have to be careful because these companies change their names and addresses very often in order to find more prey,' Leung said.



Group in court bid to recover cash from alleged travel scam