PHUKET: Swedish and Dutch families fear they have lost thousands of baht in buying flights to Phuket through Facebook, a meeting heard yesterday.

''About 20'' others have also paid for flights that were never booked, the gathering was told.

Vice Governor Somkiet Sangkaosutthirak said that the deceit appeared to be an internet scam, in the Thai language. ''This kind of rip-off threatens to destroy Phuket's reputation,'' he said.

The Director of the Damrungtam provincial complaints office, Praphan Khanprasang, said that efforts to contact the woman and the company who sold the tickets for flights from Stockholm to Phuket had failed.

He named the agent as Jirattithika Wattayawong and the travel firm, Central Point Travel and Property Agency.

It's believed that at one point, the agency had outlets in bangkok and on Phuket. Calls to the Phuket telephone number were not being answered today.

The meeting was told yesterday that Watchari Wongkhuntod, 46, complained that she and her Dutch husband had paid 43,600 baht into an account for flights while Nichaya Promkasikoon had paid 83,000 baht for flights for her Swedish family.

Both had eventually paid for legitimate flights and sought to get their money back once they arrived on Phuket, Khun Praphan said.

Khun Praphan told the meeting at Phuket Provincial Hall in Phuket City that letters to the company had been returned unopened.

The matter had yet to be passed to Phuket police.