Chicago-area travel agent charged after allegedly scamming families out of their money

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Maysoon Nasir by is licensed under
CHICAGO, IL - Maysoon Nasir has been the subject of multiple investigative reports by Chicago’s CBS 2. Now she has been arrested, having been charged with two felony counts of identity theft, four felony counts of theft by deception and one misdemeanor count of obstructing identification. 



A reporter from WGN also tweeted that numerous families paid for vacations that Nasir never booked. “She’s charged by Oak Lawn Police with theft by deception for allegedly charging thousands of dollars for travel packages that in many cases were never booked,” Lourdes Duarte tweeted.

 

One such victim of Nasir’s alleged crimes is Carina Tuminello. Nasir claims to have made her reservations for a trip to Disneyland, but Tuminello had to come out of pocket for airfare and hotel, taking her total expenditures to more than $13,000.

She knew something was not right when she arrived at Chicago’s Midway Airport to catch her flight on Southwest. When she put her confirmation number in the kiosk, it came back as invalid.  

Likewise, Anthony Juggan was out $7,000. He received a full refund after CBS 2 confronted Nasir, asking why she was using the Juggan family debit card to purchase hotel rooms for other clients.
 
Nasir promised to pay her clients back. She left Tuminello several messages saying that she would reimburse everything, and she even dropped off a check. But when Tuminello attempted to deposit that check, she was told that it was no good. According to the bank, it had been written from a closed account.

Those victimized by the scams allegedly carried out by Nasir may be waiting for a while for reimbursement, as Nasir has filed for bankruptcy. According to CBS’s Lauren Victory, bankruptcy records searches revealed that Nasir has also applied for bankruptcy seven times previously.

In June, a local man sued the travel agent for $9,300 and won, landing her in a consumer fraud case. In July, the Better Business Bureau flagged her company, M&M Events and promotions.

The CBS affiliate spoke with more than a dozen clients that have lost more than $50,000 collectively. To those she hasn’t offered a refund, she offered travel credits instead.

Nemesio Oliva Jr. spoke to the travel credit offer. "We don't want the credit from your company [now] that you screwed me the first time," the former customer said.

Victory spoke with several of Nasir’s victims about her arrest and the pending charges.

"It's kind of like a little bit of justice for us, right?" Tuminello said. "So I was happy on that part, but it also made me feel like, why are we even going through this?"

"My sister initially woo-hooed like somebody hit a homerun," Juggan said. "She has to accept what she's done and be held to account for it and hopefully learn from it."

Nasir was due to appear in court on Tuesday. The results of that hearing were not released prior to the time of this writing.
 
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