FAMILIES in West Somerset looking to entertain their children have been warned to beware an apparent online scam offering cheap tickets for Tropiquaria zoo, Washford Cross.
Tropiquaria director Chris Moiser said a website with a name which included the terms ‘promopro’ and ‘uk’ was purporting to offer discounted tickets.
But, Mr Moiser advised people should ‘not go anywhere near it’.
He said: “Their email address, if you press ‘contact us’ is in Hong Kong.
“They have never contacted us, we have negotiated nothing with them.
“Nor have we ever been in contact with them.
“Contacting them may lead to you being encouraged to download software to gain further discounts.
“You do this at your own peril, and I strongly advise against this.”
Mr Moiser said he was happy to talk to people who contacted him directly if they had any further concerns.
One social media commentator, Maya Lucey, who is a qualified business administrator, said the ‘scam’ was ‘quite common’.
Ms Lucey said: “What they do is see what is trending in certain areas such as attractions and shows.
“If they know people are searching the word ‘Tropiquaria’, then they put that and a ‘discount’ link onto their website and every click it gets, they get advertising revenue.
“I can see their website is plastered with ads, it has just been the summer holidays and you are right by Butlins so you have probably had a fair few searches on the internet in the last few months making you a trending business.
“If you create an account on PromoPro they probably also sell your data to cold callers, which is annoying.”
Ms Lucey said it seemed relatively risk free in terms of customers losing money and it provided a genuine link to the Tropiquria website, while payments were via PayPal.
She said it might be ‘a bit annoying’ as some visitors might ask for the discount because they had seen it advertised.
However, the website only wanted people to watch the advertisements so it could ‘claim a few pennies each time’.