FBI investigating Florida travel agency for fraud

Are you a customer of Hopkins Travel Services of Wimauma, Florida? You will want to contact the FBI Tampa Bay field office ( 5525 West Gray Street, Tampa, FL 33609 - Telephone (813) 253-1000 ) and join the cacophony of individuals who have been victimized by Hopkins Travel Service. As of 27 September, Hopkins Travel Service, LLC in Florida has been shuttered.

Kudos to WMAR consumer reporter Mallory Sofastaii for breaking the story in late-September on the fraud perpetrated by Hopkins Travel Services, a company owned and managed by Diana Hopkins. And kudos to WFLA consumer reporter Shannon Behnken who followed-up the story, also in late-September. Sofastaii brought the credit card fraud to the world’s attention and Behnken paid Hopkins a visit at her Wimauma, Florida home (if only to talk to the door and watch the garage door close).

The four video reports filed by Sofastaii and Behnken describe how Hopkins used her Facebook presence to offer a two-for-one or BOGO (Buy One Get One) offering, and then allegedly pocket a portion of the proceeds.

Hopkins apparently would take the passenger’s down payments on cruise travel, make the initial reservation with the cruise lines and then seemingly take no further action. Passengers who visited NCL or Royal Caribbean saw their reservation and made the assumption all was well.

Her fraud percolated to the forefront when the cruise lines began canceling traveler’s reservations. Norwegian Cruise Lines sent the following to their customers:

It appears that the Travel Agent you used for your booking, Hopkins Travel Services, has committed credit card fraud, did not pay for all or a portion of your cruise with your funds, and accordingly, we believe that your credit card may have been compromised as a result.

~Norwegian Cruise Lines

WMAR’s Sofastaii tells us, Norwegian Cruise Line set up a voicemail specifically for customers of Hopkins Travel Services.

“… please note there have been hundreds of calls to my number in the last two days and it will take some time in getting back to you each individually. For further information, please note that we are canceling all the reservations and due to the fraud issue, if your card is on the reservation, it will be refunded.”

~Norwegian Cruise Lines

Once the cancellations began, Hopkins reacted by sending a Facebook post out to her community saying that “Due to unforeseen circumstances, we had to cancer your Greece Cruise reservation and will no longer be working with this cruise line (NCL).”

What she left out was a tiny tidbit of information, on how she also apparently was using one customer’s credit card to pay for the cruise of another - Perhaps this is fraud?

Sadly, Hopkins isn’t the first travel agency to go south, as we discussed last year with the MTAF who sold, then pocketed the funds for faith-based travel.

Digging into Hopkins Travel Service

Post-media attention being brought upon Hopkins Travel Service, Hopkins apparently has begun trying to make Hopkins Travel Service disappear.

The good folks at Buzzfile, have a profile on the company and estimate that Hopkins Travel Service brought in approximately $200,000 per year, had two employees, with Diana Hopkins identified as the principal. The entity is run out of an address in Wimauma, Florida. The address corresponds to the personal address of Diana Hopkins, which we verified via public documents.

Hopkins files for bankruptcy: A search of the Federal case archives didn’t show any criminal complaint or indictments for Hopkins. Not surprisingly, we did find that Diana Hopkins, jointly with another debtor, filed for Chapter 13 bankruptcy with the United States Bankruptcy Court for the Middle District of Florida (Case: 8-19-bk-10177-MGW). Among her many declarations she notes that she has $22,000 in gambling losses for 2018. Interestingly, she also claims to continue to garner $6600+ per month as personal income from her Hopkins Travel Services LLC, but lists the value of the company as zero.

Facebook: We found that the Facebook page for Hopkins Travel Services has been wiped clean. We also found the Facebook Group: Vacations For You! has also been cleaned out. Her personal Facebook page remains in place.

LinkedIn: Hopkins LinkedIn profile remains in place. Though she claims to be in Baltimore.

Better Business Bureau: They give Hopkins Travel Services an F. The customer filings with the BBB indicate that every experience mentioned was negative.

Website: HTSVacationDeals.com - that too has been taken down, though the domain has been paid for through May 2020.

Florida Corporate Records: Hopkins Travel Services, LLC was administratively dissolved on 27 September 2019.

Meanwhile, passengers and customers of Hopkins should proactively reach out to the cruise lines with whom they believe they have reservations to determine if their funds are available for refund, then to their credit card companies given NCL’s statement that they discovered fraudulent activity. In addition, if you are a victim, make sure to reach out to the Tampa Field Office of the FBI to register as a victim.

We’ll keep on eye on the criminal side of the equation and watch for the FBI to engage the Department of Justice in bringing fraud charges against Diana Hopkins and Hopkins Travel Services, LLC.

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