The Canadian Tourist's Journey Yu Chen Lin in Cartagena put an end to the bitter experience of being scammed when hiring the traditional car tour through the beautiful streets of the historic center. The service, agreed for one hundred thousand pesos, ended up costing him 22,230,000 pesosequivalent to $5,700.

According to the woman, at the end of the trip, she tried to pay with her credit card, but the coachman told her he did not have a credit card. dataphoneshe therefore had to go to a friend's house located near the Fernández Park in Madrid to lend him one.

You can now follow us on WhatsApp channel and in Google News.

When making the transaction at the aforementioned point, they told her that the payment was not made due to a failure, so the woman gave her another card. Then they continued to make all kinds of excuses for her to keep trying different cards, leading her to fork out a million dollars.

The tourist did not learn of the transactions until the next day, when she reviewed the bank statements. Immediately he managed to freeze one of the transactions and only ended up paying around 17 million pesosequivalent to $3,723.

He then contacted the police, who arrested the driver. He denied responsibility for the incident and directly blamed the woman who used the dataphone; They had not been able to locate her.

However, Cesareo Buj Hernández, Secretary of the Interior of Cartagena, reported in recent hours that the woman had already been found and that he would return the money to the foreign citizen. “All the actors involved in this case have been identified, and first six million pesos were recovered, then there is a commitment from those involved in returning the money to the tourist, and we continue to “We will investigate the incident with the police, Sijín and all the necessary entities,” he said.

The official added that these types of events cannot happen again in the city because they harm tourism. For this reason, he assured that the facts would continue to be investigated.

“We must respect the image of Cartagena, and above all we, the inhabitants, the authorities, the people who live from the commerce of Cartagena, and all those who visit us too (…) I make a recommendation to all tourists. than before “When you use a service, check the prices, check if it is a legal service,” the secretary said.

In an interview for the station Radio Wthe manager indicated that they have already been recovered six million pesos to the tourist, and that the father of the woman who lent the dataphone promised to return the rest of the money.

He also assured that in response to the complaint of the Canadian citizen, they were working with the authorities, the coachmen and with people who provide other types of services to avoid episodes like this. “What happens is that events like these need to be avoided, which is why we always try to get tourists to report them and keep them informed,” he said.

For her part, the tourist concerned declared Caracol News that this experience filled her with sadness. “This trip to Cartagena brought me sadness and unpleasant experiences. “This scam that I fell victim to can completely harm the experience in the country, especially in the city, which is a popular destination,” he said. Yu Chen Lin.

There Association of Coachmen of Cartagena He said the driver had already been removed from duty. “In compliance with due process, we have made available to the competent authorities all the support of our spokespersons to provide collaboration and information to clarify what happened,” they said in a statement.