More than one hundred members of the Anash community, who planned to travel from Eretz Yisroel to New York for Tishrei, were victims of a large-scale travel scam this past month.

A man named Shai Sandik, posing as a travel agent, sold them fraudulent airline tickets. The passengers, who had paid in full, received what looked like authentic tickets and confirmation emails. However, upon their arrival at the airport, they were shocked to discover their names were not in the airlines’ systems.

Some travelers who had booked connecting flights through the scammer were left stranded in various countries after their onward flights proved to be fictitious, leaving them bitterly disappointed just days before Yom Tov.

In response to a wave of complaints, Israeli police initiated an investigation and arrested the suspect in Afula on charges of orchestrating the fraud. Meanwhile, Chabad-affiliated travel agents are working to help the affected individuals secure new travel arrangements to reach New York.