Scam lost mum her holiday money, can she get get cost of flight back?
MY MOTHER was recently caught up in an online holiday rental scam. She wanted to book a villa in Marbella for a family celebration but the site was false. She was conned into making a direct transfer to the person’s bank account rather than the rental company’s system. She lost over £5,000.
The fraud department at her bank, NatWest, is negotiating with counterparts at Barclays – the bank where her money ended up – to see if anything can be recovered.
We have to see what will happen here. But as a result of the swindle, the air tickets we booked on Monarch, costing £3,445 were no use to anyone in the family at this time. She asked Monarch for either a refund or credits towards a future flight – we still intend on going to Spain when we are clearer as to where we shall stay.
But Monarch refused, stating it will only refund or offer credit “in exceptional circumstances”. The airline cites death as an example.
Can you help? Martin H MANY reasons for ticket cancellation – illness or death either of the traveller or someone close – are covered by travel insurance.
Being scammed out of your accommodation is not something you can claim under a policy.
We’ll follow up on this matter but obviously, losing £5,000 is not comparable to death or serious illness. However, the worry over Monarch’s interpretation of its policy that you have to throw away the airline tickets has given your mother sleepless nights, leading to potential medical intervention over her anxiety.
Monarch cites death as an exception that would allow it to refund a ticket which is normally not refundable. But its terms and conditions do not limit the exceptions to this – it’s just an example. By their nature, exceptions cannot be exactly defined – when Monarch came up with these terms, accommodation fraud was almost unheard of – sadly it is now far more common.
However, when Which? approached Monarch for details of other “exceptional circumstances” which would create a refund, it was sympathetic.
It said: “As a gesture of goodwill and to help her, we’ll put a credit against the booking. When she contacts customer services again she can cancel her booking and she’ll then be able to re-book flight tickets (to the same value) within 12 months.”
That’s one worry less to deal with.