The following incident was shared Exclusively with TLS by one of the parties involved.
I would like to share a story that happened to me in hopes that I can save someone else from such a horrible experience.
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A few of us planned a trip to Hungary to go to Kerestir and daven by Reb Shayele’s kever. In order to be able to get into Hungary, we needed a visa due to Covid restrictions.
We were put in touch with a certain travel agent who sold them to us for $250 per visa for a total of $750.
As we entered Hungary, the immigration officer looked at our visa and immediately told us to have a seat. An hour later he came to us and showed us a copy of a visa that was under someone else’s name that had the exact same visa numbers as ours, meaning the travel agent took a legitimate visa and put new names on them. The officer told us that entering Hungary with a fraudulent visa is a criminal offense. This despicable agent only cared about making a quick dollar, and not concerned about putting us in grave danger.
We immediately contacted R. Moshe Friedlander who runs the house and food services in Kerestir. He dropped everything and got on the case.
With his help, we BH were not charged with a crime, but were escorted out on the next flight. R Friedlander even made sure to send bags of food to the airport for our return flight.
I urge everyone to please make sure the agent you are using is legitimate, and if you have any questions please contact the office in Kerestir.
