Rise in Travel Booking Confirmation Scams, Here’s What to Watch Out For

Cyber experts are offering valuable advice that online users must follow, especially in the wake of the increasing number of online booking scams on highly reputable sites like Booking.com.

Booking.com has seen a notable increase in online frauds, where its customers see thousands of dollars going out of their wallets to scammers.

For instance, scammers contact people who reserve their tickets with Booking.com and ask them to confirm their payment or risk losing their reservations. The moment people click on the fraudulent links and enter their information, their cards are charged heavily, leading to financial loss.

Mick Thomas was one of the victims of this fraud as he booked a hotel in Amsterdam and was scheduled to pay for the booking shortly before his arrival in September.

However, in July, Mick received a message through the Booking.com messaging platform which asked him to confirm his booking immediately by paying almost £1,697. He followed the given link and was tricked into entering his card information into the hackers database, who eventually stole his money. This and many other similar phishing attempts have worried the holidaymakers who continue to face such attacks to date.

Booking.com’s top cyber official, Marnie Wilking, has recently confirmed that the scams on his platform have increased by almost 500% to 900% in recent times. This surge in fraudulent online activities has also mobilized cybersecurity experts who advise people to adopt some basic practices to avoid such scams.

According to one such expert, Jake Moore, everyone must avoid clicking on any link and go outside the booking.com platform, as this is the major mistake most people make, which costs them their hard-earned money.

Moore also told people to pay attention to details about their scheduled payments to any hotel, which will help them avoid entering the traps of unnecessary payments.

Booking.com itself is warning users not to click on “unusual links” and reply to skeptical messages, as they may have originated from fraudsters.

Moore explained how scammers manage to send suspicious messages to customers within the internal messaging platform of Booking.com.

He stated that these criminals usually contact small hotels that lack proper cyber safety protocols and send them a suspicious link or a document that they click on to download the malware.

Moore explained a specific instance where a scammer, posing as a customer who had forgotten his medicine at the hotel, contacted the hotel and sent a file claiming it contained information about the medicine, but it was actually a virus.

When anyone clicks on such a link or downloads corrupted files, their computers are hacked, which allows scammers to get information about the hotel bookings, which they use to contact and rob the actual customers of the hotel.