Is it reliable to find a "ride" online to travel together? Professionals remind: Don’t trust netizens, be careful to fall into the trap.
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In order to find a companion on the trip, some people want to find someone to share the cost of accommodation and food. This year, it is quietly popular to find a "partner" to travel together. Searching on social platforms, you can find many posts looking for "travel partners".
However, it is not easy to find a suitable "travel partner". In addition to the same time and place, it is best for both sides to have the same consumption level. In addition, if you find a "partner" carelessly, you may also encounter fraud. Professionals remind you not to trust netizens too much. Money fraud is small and personal risk is big, so be cautious.
Guo Bin, a lawyer of Guangzhou Jinqiao Baixin Law Firm, reminded that when looking for a travel partner online, you must verify the identity information of the other party, keep the corresponding chat records, transfer records and other evidence, and ask the relevant departments for help in time if you encounter illegal and criminal acts.
"Travel partner" should find people with the same frequency.
Mr. Chen from Shanghai is 25 years old and just left his job. In July, he posted in Xiaohongshu looking for "squatting male travel partners", and soon hundreds of people privately believed him.
After some consideration, Mr. Chen finally chose Lin Si (a pseudonym), a boy who is similar in age and has basically the same travel goals, and is also willing to introduce his personal basic situation to him as a "travel partner".
In early July, they embarked on a journey to Guangdong and walked through the streets of Chaozhou and Shantou.
On the last day of the trip, the two settled the accounts of the trip and shared the expenses. During the trip, the two did not disagree on the cost. The "big accounts" such as hotel room money and train tickets were basically covered by Lin Si first, and then shared equally; For "small bills" such as eating and taking a taxi, the two take turns to pay. As for the more trivial drinks, neither of them cares too much.
For Mr. Chen, this trip with his partner was very enjoyable. Besides playing, he also made friends. They kept in touch, and then Lin Si traveled to Tibet and sent him a postcard. He said that he would try to find a tourist partner to play with later.
Not everyone can find a "travel partner" smoothly. In the little red book, the reporter found that many bloggers found no results in finding a "partner".
In April this year, Ms. Chen from Guangdong and her "travel partners" broke up before they left. Ms. Chen said that after she posted a post in Xiaohongshu looking for a "partner", two qualified female college students contacted her, hoping to accompany her. However, since the May Day holiday was approaching when the three of them were together, the source of train tickets was tight, and they didn’t grab the train tickets, so the travel plan could only be stranded.
Although she failed to travel together, Ms. Chen felt that she had no regrets. In the communication, she felt that she was not consistent with the other party’s consumption view. Both partners were college students and hoped to travel in poverty. And she has worked for two years and has a certain savings. If she always has to accommodate each other on the way out, she will not be too happy if she is wronged in accommodation and food.
In the little red book, there is also a lot of content in Tucao’s "travel partner". Some bloggers spit out the "travel partner" and regarded her as a "mother", always ordering people to do things, and even "erasing zero" for themselves when sharing the expenses, which made people feel disgusted. Netizens in the comment area have said that after reading the post, they feel that the quality of "tourism partners" is mixed, and it seems that they still need to polish their eyes.
Mr. Chen, who has successful experience, suggested that looking for a "travel partner" is actually looking for a person with the same frequency. This "same frequency" not only means that the time and place of travel should be consistent, such as identity, age, personality, spending power and so on. Therefore, it is necessary to fully understand and communicate beforehand.
Someone cheated in the name of finding a partner.
With the popularity of finding "travel partners" on social platforms, a new type of fraud has emerged to defraud money in the name of finding "partners".
In early September, Ms. Zhao and a friend planned to travel to Xinjiang, so they posted on Little Red Book, asking everyone to provide some strategies for traveling to Xinjiang. Many people believed her privately after seeing it.
A woman named Honghuaer (a pseudonym) claimed to rent a business car with her friends and invited Ms. Zhao and her friends to share the expenses.
Honghuaer said that she can book a room in Kanas, but because it is the tourist season, she needs to make a full reservation. The other party asked Zhao Nvshi to transfer a deposit of 3,000 yuan. Without much thought, Ms. Zhao chose to trust the other party and let it arrange, so she transferred the deposit to the other party.
After Zhao Nvshi transferred the money, Honghuaer didn’t tell her which hotel, when and at what price, and refused to show her plane ticket to Xinjiang.
Because she has never received the reservation information from the other party, Ms. Zhao realized that she might be cheated. When looking for Honghuaer to refund the deposit, she grinded for a few days. Honghuaer only showed the record of transferring 2860 yuan to the hotel and refused to refund the deposit.
Zhao Nvshi shared his experience of being "cheated" on the Internet. Some netizens said that they had encountered a similar situation and suspected that the other party might be a "child care" in a hotel or travel agency.
Ms. Luo, a senior tour guide from Henan, told Jimu journalists that regular travel agencies would never have such a problem, at least she had never heard of such an operation. "But it is not clear whether some low-cost groups or informal tour guides will do this."
Ms. Luo told the reporter that at present, among the tour group tourists she brought, she has never met a "travel partner", and generally she travels with relatives, friends and colleagues. She cautioned against trusting hotel or travel reservations made in one’s own name. "If even a regular tour group can’t book a hotel, let alone an individual?" Ms. Luo said that travel is no better than online shopping, money is cheated less and personal risks are greater, so be cautious.
Keep your eyes open when looking for a "travel partner"
Recently, the topic of "Little Red Book Travel Partner Post is accused of being involved in pornography" was posted on Weibo Hot Search. Some netizens found that "traveling with children, all-inclusive expenses" is becoming a code word. Extremely popular journalists searched on the platform of Xiaohongshu, and found that there are indeed many accounts with "gender as male" who limit the other party’s gender to female when posting posts looking for "travel partners", and some people call them "intentional private chat".
In this regard, Xiaohongshu officially responded that the platform attaches great importance to it. At present, it has carried out a full-scale review of the notes related to the "travel partner" in the station, and has not yet located the problems reflected by the users mentioned in the article. Once the illegal content is verified, it will be dealt with seriously according to the law. At present, the warning message of "travel, safety first" has been placed on the "travel partner" search interface of Xiaohongshu.
How to protect your rights and interests when looking for a "travel partner"? Guo Bin, a lawyer of Guangzhou Jinqiao Baixin Law Firm, told Jimu journalists that recently, the financial risks that often occur in "tourism partners" include falling into consumer traps such as black travel agencies and being defrauded of property; Personal safety risks include sexual assault and other risks brought by exciting projects. Therefore, Guo Bin suggested that after confirming the "partner" online, real-name registration system should verify the identity information of the other party as much as possible. For those involving financial expenses, try to confirm them in written form such as WeChat chat and SMS. If you encounter losses or criminal acts, it is recommended to save the corresponding chat records, transfer records and other evidence at the first time and ask the relevant departments for help in time.