EAST Lancashire’s prospective Muslim hajj pilgrims are being warned to beware warned of online and other scams when booking their visits to Mecca and Medina.

All followers of Islam are under a sacred duty to make at least one pilgrimage to the Saudi Arabian Holy Cities in their lifetime.

Every year many book their trips only to find they have been duped and defrauded.

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Now the Lancashire Council of Mosques chairman Adbul Hamid Qureshi is writing a letter to be read out by Imams in Mosques urging would-be pilgrims to check their travel plans are genuine and safe.

It follows a warning by the Association of British Hujjaj (pilgrims) UK (ABH), a national charity specifically working for the welfare and wellbeing of pilgrims, about the threat of rogue and unscrupulous tour and travel operators, who try to defraud the pilgrims.

More than 3,000 East Lancashire Muslims take the pilgrimage, held in July and August this year, following the month of Ramadan.

Regrettably, in recent years a substantial number of pilgrims have fallen victim to Hajj scams in which they lost large sums of money.

The criminal and rogue tour operators sell Hajj packages online through fake websites and disappear, near the Hajj time, leaving pilgrims stranded and without replacement travel plans.

Last year local authority Trading Standards officers across Lancashire found – in spot checks – that 23 Hajj agents in Blackburn with Darwen, Hyndburn, Burnley and Pendle failed to meet professional travel agency standards.

Action was started against several and over the years there have been prosecutions against Hajj fraudsters nationwide, including in East Lancashire.