This page collects the patterns. It is written for families booking an Umrah for someone they love, often from abroad, and for anyone asked “is this offer a scam?”. The cases come from Moroccan and Saudi sources, each named in the text. Nobody is named, and an arrest is never treated as a conviction.
What are the warning signs?
Each sign below comes from at least one published case or official warning. On its own, a sign does not mean you are dealing with a fraudster. Two or more together mean you should not pay until you have answers in writing.
The agency is not in the directory
The Ministry of Tourism publishes the travel-agency directory, including the lists of ODV and DV agencies licensed under Law 11-16, on mtaess.gov.ma2. An agency that is missing from it may simply trade under another name. It may also have no licence at all, or no longer have one.
The check: ask for the company name in writing and search both names yourself. The method is in how to check a Moroccan Umrah agency's licence.
The money goes to a person
A cousin who “knows the agency”, a group organiser at the mosque, a contact on WhatsApp who collects for several families. Many of them are honest. But when money goes to a private person, your receipt no longer proves that the agency was paid, and the agency's licence does not cover what you handed to someone else.
The check: the receipt and the bank account should carry the agency's name, the same one as in the directory and on the contract.
The offer is abnormally cheap, and only online
The president of the agencies' federation said that gaps in licensing allow unqualified people to operate legally, and a consumer association warned against online offers at abnormally low prices1. A low price is not proof of anything. A low price with no company name, no written programme and pressure to pay is a pattern.
The check: ask for the hotel names, the dates, the flights and what happens if the trip is cancelled, in writing. If the doubt is about the package document itself, offresomra.ma lists the red flags you can read in an Umrah package.
Someone promises a visa by another route
According to a Le360 press review (March 2024), the authorities had warned agencies against issuing visas outside official procedures4. On 3 July 2024, TelQuel reported 3 arrests in Marrakech and Fez over pilgrimage-visa fraud; these were arrests, not convictions6.
The check: a seller who says the paperwork can be “arranged” outside the normal process is telling you, in effect, that the normal process is being bypassed. Ask in writing which company files the application and in whose name, and keep the answer.
The advert looks official but leads nowhere
On 9 April 2025, the Saudi Ministry of Hajj and Umrah warned against misleading advertising and fake offers, and presented the e-track on its official website and the Nusuk app as the only approved channels for booking Hajj packages5. That warning concerned Hajj, but the pattern is the same for Umrah adverts: a logo, a phone number and a price, with no company you can look up.
The check: find the company behind the advert, then find that company in the directory. If you cannot do the first step, you cannot do the second.
What do published cases show?
Four cases from the Moroccan press, told as the outlets told them.
- A licence that had lapsed: according to H24info, a Marrakech agency left pilgrims stranded in Turkey: it was operating without authorisation, having failed to renew its licence, and was therefore not on the official list7. According to H24info, the pilgrims were repatriated7.
- Money collected for trips that never happened: according to Hespress, the manager of a Marrakech agency was arrested in February 2026, suspected of collecting about 3.8 million dirhams (380 million centimes) for Umrah trips that never took place; this is an arrest, not a conviction8.
- Pilgrimage-visa fraud: TelQuel reported 3 arrests in Marrakech and Fez on 3 July 2024, over pilgrimage-visa fraud6.
- Complaints right after registrations opened: according to a Le360 press review (March 2024), dozens of people in Salé said an agency had defrauded them shortly after registrations opened4.
What links them is not a city or a type of agency. It is a moment: the money left the family before anyone had checked who was receiving it, under what licence, and against what written promise.
In two of these cases, the sources speak of arrests. An arrest means an investigation, not a verdict, and the people concerned are presumed innocent. The dated list of cases and official alerts, with the stage each one has reached, is kept in the Morocco Umrah fraud log.
Why are registration periods risky?
Because everybody books at once, and checks get skipped. According to a Le360 press review (March 2024), Umrah scams had resumed even before Ramadan, with dozens of people in Salé saying an agency had defrauded them shortly after registrations opened4. In the same report, according to a Le360 press review (March 2024), the Rabat-Salé-Kénitra regional agency association said such cases harmed the profession4.
The same season shows up again two years later: on 12 February 2026, the Moroccan Consumer Protection Observatory issued a national alert urging people to check an agency's legal status before paying for an Umrah8. According to Hespress, the arrest of the Marrakech manager suspected of collecting money for trips that never happened also dates from February 20268.
Three habits help when the season is busy:
- Check before the deposit, not after. A deposit “to hold the room” is still money paid.
- Ignore messages saying everything closes tonight. An agency that is licensed today will still be licensed tomorrow, and you will have had time to look it up.
- Book the check, not just the trip. If you are organising for parents, agree with them that nobody pays until you have searched the directory together.
Already paid? What to do
Do not panic, and do not pay anything more until you know who you are dealing with.
Tick off
- Stop further payments. No “balance”, no “processing fee”, no “last hotel supplement” until the questions below have answers.
- Gather everything. The contract, every receipt, the transfer slips, the messages, a screenshot of the advert. Write down the names and phone numbers you were given.
- Search the directory now. Under the trade name and the company name, on the ministry's site2.
- Ask in writing. Send the agency a short message: its company name, its licence type, the hotel names and the travel dates. A written refusal to answer is information too.
- Go to the right office. Disputes between pilgrims and agencies are first settled amicably through the delegations of the Ministry of Tourism9. The full sequence is in complaint against a Moroccan travel agency: your options.
If you believe money was taken for a trip that will never happen, a lawyer can tell you whether to go further. We do not yet have a sourced procedure for criminal complaints to give you, so we do not describe one.
Living abroad while the payment was made in Morocco? The steps are the same; who does them changes. Checking your parents' Umrah agency from abroad explains how to collect the documents remotely.
Still unclear
- How the cases reported in the press ended in court: an arrest or an investigation says nothing about the verdict, and we have found no follow-up for most of them.
- How many people in Morocco are defrauded over an Umrah each year: we know of no official national figure.
- Whether the warnings reported by Le360 led to sanctions against particular agencies.
- Whether the Saudi warning of April 2025 also covered Umrah adverts: the source presents it as a warning about Hajj packages5.
What should you do next?
Before any payment, run the licence check on the agency in front of you: how to check a Moroccan Umrah agency's licence. It takes a few minutes, and it answers the first warning sign on this page.