Authorities Investigate Vacation Package Scam Ring at Playa del Carmen Hotel

Playa del Carmen, Quintana Roo — Authorities are investigating a group accused of using a Playa del Carmen hotel as the base for a vacation package scheme that targeted tourists and local residents with promises of prizes and steeply discounted travel deals.

According to witness accounts, the organizers already held personal information on the people they called, among them domestic tourists and residents of Playa del Carmen. During those calls, they claimed links to financial institutions or credit card companies and told the recipients they had been selected for a benefit that had to be claimed in person.

The property, identified as the Casa Kaoba hotel on federal highway 307 near the entrance to the Bali residential development, was reportedly taken over entirely by the group. Access was controlled at the entrance, and only people who had been summoned were allowed inside. Once in, visitors were directed to an area staffed by salespeople, where they were first questioned about their spending habits before the sales pitch began.

The offers shifted as negotiations progressed. The opening proposal was a package of 40 stays for 128,000 pesos, and when those present declined, the price fell to options such as four nights for 12,000 pesos or two nights for 5,000 pesos. Discounts on flights, hotels and tours were also dangled, while the documents handed out reportedly carried no clear identification of the company behind the operation.

On Friday, dozens of people arrived at the site to collect the prize they had been told about by phone. One of them grew suspicious of the setup and later reported what happened to the 911 emergency line. By the time authorities sought to intervene, activities at the hotel had stopped and the people running the operation had apparently left.

On Saturday, State Police officers visited the hotel and interviewed workers to gather information about who had rented the property. The Cyber Police also began tracing the phone numbers used to make the calls, aiming to identify those involved and determine whether the conduct amounts to fraud.