JavaScript is disabled in your web browser or browser is too old to support JavaScript. Today almost all web pages contain JavaScript, a scripting programming language that runs on visitor's web browser. It makes web pages functional for specific purposes and if disabled for some reason, the content or the functionality of the web page can be limited or unavailable.

Tuesday, July 15, 2025

Tobago cops warn tourists of guest house scams

by

Shane Superville
32 days ago
20250613

There is an emerg­ing trend of scam­mers claim­ing to rep­re­sent le­git­i­mate guest hous­es and of­fer­ing book­ings for tourists then pock­et­ing the mon­ey that is trans­ferred to them.

The lat­est scheme was ex­posed by ACP To­ba­go Os­wain Subero when he de­liv­ered re­marks at the launch of an Ar­ti­fi­cial In­tel­li­gence (AI) train­ing pro­gramme for 20 po­lice of­fi­cers at the To­ba­go Tech­nol­o­gy In­sti­tute yes­ter­day.

He warned vis­i­tors to ex­er­cise cau­tion when book­ing guest hous­es and ho­tel ac­com­mo­da­tions.

Subero said the train­ing pro­gramme, which was ini­ti­at­ed in part­ner­ship with To­ba­go’s Jade Mon­key Bar and GNC Labs, was valu­able in sen­si­tis­ing of­fi­cers about the dan­gers of AI gen­er­at­ed im­ages, videos and oth­er fea­tures which can be used to de­ceive the pub­lic.

He said the guest house scam is an ex­am­ple of how re­source­ful crim­i­nals had be­come to find new vic­tims us­ing tech­nol­o­gy.

“One of our chal­lenges we have recog­nised is the is­sue of iden­ti­fy­ing what is re­al and what is not re­al,” he said.

“We are in a space where tourism is the main thrust in To­ba­go and per­sons are book­ing ho­tels they don’t own, be­ing paid for spaces that they don’t own and peo­ple are ar­riv­ing at guest hous­es on­ly to re­alise that the per­son they paid has no af­fil­i­a­tion with the ho­tels.”

Subero said at least five peo­ple have re­port­ed be­ing scammed.

Re­fer­ring to the T&T Po­lice Ser­vice (TTPS) 2025–2027 op­er­a­tional plan which was in­tro­duced ear­li­er this year, Subero said the po­lice al­so had a re­spon­si­bil­i­ty to in­cor­po­rate tech­nol­o­gy in their an­ti-crime plans.

He said there were plans to in­tro­duce a To­ba­go edi­tion of the Ea­gle Eye project (Cit­i­zen Se­cu­ri­ty Net­work), which used an in­te­grat­ed CCTV sys­tem where mul­ti­ple se­cu­ri­ty cam­eras were fed to a po­lice com­mand cen­tre.

Subero said this ini­tia­tive would not on­ly en­hance re­sponse times of of­fi­cers, but re­duce the need for “eye­ball” wit­ness­es to crimes who might be hes­i­tant to come for­ward and re­port what they ob­served.

To­ba­go Ho­tel and Tourism As­so­ci­a­tion (THAT) Regi­nald MacLean did not re­spond to ques­tions on the is­sue up to press time.

On the is­sue of AI as a po­ten­tial weapon for crim­i­nals, head of the To­ba­go Di­vi­sion Snr Supt Earl Elie said it was some­thing the po­lice should be par­tic­u­lar­ly aware of and he laud­ed the TTPS and pri­vate sec­tor part­ners for the train­ing ses­sion.

Elie said the po­lice should not be left be­hind in recog­nis­ing and coun­ter­ing these threats.

“We see the need ba­si­cal­ly for us to be pre­pared even more than we are to treat with it. We see the preva­lence of deep-fake videos and we know the im­pact that can have on the pub­lic in terms of cre­at­ing neg­a­tive im­ages of per­sons, spread­ing bad in­for­ma­tion or neg­a­tive in­for­ma­tion, so what it does for us is it tells us we need to be more care­ful in form­ing con­clu­sions and mak­ing fi­nal de­ci­sions.” —Shane Su­perville


Related articles

Sponsored

Weather

PORT OF SPAIN WEATHER

Sponsored

Today's
Guardian

Publications

Shastri Boodan

Shastri Boodan

Apsara inspires youth through culture

17 hours ago
Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne

Dr Mariama Alleyne: Global Hero of Hope supports cancer survivors

2 days ago
During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

During my consultation with Ms Brafit CEO Nicole Joseph-Chin, what was supposed to be a simple mastectomy bra fitting became something much deeper. Her thoughtful questions unlocked emotions I didn’t even realise I was holding in. She comforted, reassured, and helped me face the truth of what was coming. That bra wasn’t just clothing—it was the first real symbol of life after surgery.

Standing on business, not pity: My fight begins–Part 2

2 days ago
Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza graces the cover of the book: Minding Their Own Business: Five Female Leaders From Trinidad and Tobago authored by Trini-American Joanne Kilgour Dowdy, Professor of Literacy Studies at the College of Education Health and Human Services at Kent State University.

Gillian de Souza’s American culinary journey springs from T&T roots

2 days ago