In Bangkok, taxi and car rental services accounted for 48% of reported fraud cases, making them the most common sources of scams targeting tourists, the report said.

Many foreign visitors also reported being scammed by food service providers.

The report noted that travelers to Cancun (Mexico), Hanoi (Vietnam), Dhaka (Bangladesh) and Bangkok (Thailand) reported higher levels of fraud, while cities with the lowest rates of reported fraud included San Francisco, Dublin, Seoul, Budapest, and Edinburgh.

The type of scams reported in cities also varies, as taxi and car rental scams accounted for just 2% of tourist fraud cases in cities like Hong Kong and Barcelona, but made up 66% of cases in Jakarta, Indonesia, it noted.

According to Mastercard, the travel sector remains highly vulnerable to fraud, with incidents rising 18% during the summer peak and 28% in the winter season of 2024.

Euromonitor International ranked Bangkok the world’s most visited city in 2024, with a record 32.4 million arrivals.

Hanoi received 6.35 million foreign tourists last year, up 34% year-on-year. The Vietnamese capital eyes 30 million tourists this year, including seven million foreigners.