The Daily Telegraph - Saturday - Travel
The eight holiday scams catching out even the savviest travellers
More than £15 million was stolen from British holidaymakers last year by increasingly sophisticated fraudsters. Hazel Plush explains how to protect yourself from the most common cons
It has never been easier to book a holiday – nor to be scammed out of one. More than £15.3million was stolen from Britons last financial year in travel-related stings, according to Action Fraud, the national reporting centre for fraud and cybercrime. From May to August alone, criminals conned holidaymakers out of £4.6 million.
And it’s getting worse: travel scam cases are rising by 41 per cent year-onyear, says Action Fraud, with ploys affecting everything from hotel bookings to package holidays, airport parking and flights.
These are the most common scams to look for, with advice and guidance on how best to protect your money – and your holiday.
The non-existent holiday scam
THE CON
“I lost €4,000 (£3,490) on a ski holiday that didn’t exist,” says Telegraph reader Jenny*, an NHS employee from Birmingham. “I’d been researching online, signing up to multiple websites that had various offers – so I didn’t think anything of getting an email from someone who had the name of a well-known travel company in his email address. It was a broker: he said, ‘Did you get my email about your ski holiday?’; I said I must have missed it. He replied, saying ‘remind me of your criteria again?’, so I sent him the details and he came back to me with the perfect itinerary.
“I’ve used a broker before with no issues, and the booking page had official logos on it – it all felt reassuring. But when I contacted the chalet to double-check, they replied saying, ‘Sorry, that property isn’t available at all this season’ – it was clearly a scam. We’d sent the money through a wire service, so it was gone. It could have been €7,000 (£6,100): he’d originally offered all sorts of extras which we’d decided against. I’m wiser now, but super embarrassed.”
THE ADVICE
A con like this isn’t limited to holiday rentals: scammers may tout flights, hotels or entire trips over email or social media, often quoting low prices to lure you in.
“Do your research before handing over money, and double-check any website,” says Pauline Smith, the head of Action Fraud. She advises searching for reviews of the company or agent online, and checking whether it’s a member of the Association of British Travel Agents (ABTA) or a holder of an Air Travel Organiser’s Licence (ATOL) – and verifying its claims on the relevant bodies’ websites, as some fraudsters use fake numbers.
Requests for wire payments or bank transfers should also ring alarm bells: “Pay by credit card,” advises Anna Bowles, the head of consumer policy and enforcement at the UK Civil Aviation Authority. Under Section 75 of the Consumer Credit Act 1974, credit card providers are obliged to refund you in cases of fraud, if the amount is more than £100 and less than £30,000.
The bogus booking verification
THE CON
“My husband and I have reserved several hotels on booking.com for an upcoming trip, and recently I got an email from one of them via the website’s messaging system,” says Hannah*, a copywriter from Edinburgh.
“It said I needed to verify my card details via a link to secure the booking. Suspicions raised, I visited booking. com to verify that the message was really there in my account inbox – and it was. So I entered my card details as instructed. But then a chat box popped up, purporting to be a member of the hotel’s staff: they started getting pushy, saying my reservation would be cancelled altogether unless I transferred the full amount then and there.
“Long story short, my bank details were compromised, and I had to cancel my card and change all of my passwords. Luckily I smelt a rat before actually transferring any money, which would have been much harder to retrieve, but my bank called the next day to say that a £400 charge had been attempted on my credit card from Armenia, at the exact time I was talking to the person on the site. Lucky escape!”
THE ADVICE
“Ensuring that our platform is safe and trustworthy for our partners and customers is a top priority for us,” says a booking.com spokesperson, “and we’re sorry to hear about the experiences of the customer you brought to our attention. While we’re unable to investigate thoroughly without further information, it sounds like she may have been the victim of a phishing scam.
“Booking.com has teams dedicated to account security of both customers and accommodation partners. These teams have robust measures in place, and review those measures on a regular basis.
“We recommend that customers only facilitate payments via our platform, where we have guided, secure payment processes. If you have any concerns about a payment message, we encourage you to check the payment policy of the accommodation, which is easy to find on the property listing page, or reach out to our customer service team who are available 24/7.”
The free GHIC – for £34.99
THE CON
A Global Health Insurance Card (GHIC), gives Britons access to free or low-cost medical treatment while travelling in the EU – and is free of charge, via the NHS website.
However, a quick online search throws up unofficial websites that charge up to £34.99 for the application. Telegraph reader John* handed over £12.99 for a GHIC.
“I didn’t realise it should have been free,” he recalls, “though I did receive the card a couple of weeks later.”
John was lucky, as other sites have taken payment without sending the card, says Amber Burridge, the head of intelligence at not-for-profit fraud prevention organisation Cifas: “When GHIC launched, criminals capitalised on the opportunity through fake links and websites. Other tactics include paid adverts where the fake page appears at the top of search results above the genuine site. This is a way to not only gain in the shortterm financially, but to harvest information that facilitates identity fraud.”
THE ADVICE
“If these sites are claiming to be able to fast-track or manage the application for you, and then charging a fee upfront, do not progress any further with your search,” says Burridge. “Remember that the GHIC card is free and can only be obtained directly via the NHS website, nhs.uk.”
The airport parking sting
THE CON
Airport parking is littered with scams, the most common of which is offering a meet-and-greet service without owning a secure car park – so cars are left somewhere risky, such as a field or public street.
And that’s not all, warns Seamus McCauley, the head of communications at airport parking provider Holiday Extras: “The car could be driven for hundreds of miles, racking up fines or tickets, or be returned damaged. In the worst case, the car vanishes overseas.”
In August, one scammer was jailed for 17 months after charging up to £70 for a meet-and-greet service, then leaving around 500 vehicles parked in muddy fields.
THE ADVICE
Fake meet-and-greets don’t have their own car park, nor can they collect cars from the official car parks or dropoff areas – so they will ask to meet you somewhere unofficial. Rogue operators also do not usually have contact details beyond a mobile phone number.
“A proper airport car park will be accredited by an official scheme such as
ParkMark, have photos of their car parks, and have professional staff with branded uniforms who can show you their ID,” says McCauley. “If checking customer reviews, see how far back they go: fake companies come and go quickly, so they don’t have time to build up reviews.”
The fake holiday competition
THE CON
You’re scrolling on social media or checking your emails and you see a competition to win a holiday – why not enter it? While you’re savvy enough to never hand over cash for a fake “prize”, what’s the harm of filling in a form to win a break?
“Fake competitions encourage recipients to click on a link and provide their personal details in order to participate, [meaning that] the criminals now have all the information they need to abuse those details, commit fraud or sell on to organised crime gangs via the dark web,” says Burridge.
THE ADVICE
Always do your research before entering a competition: “Check for clues such as spelling mistakes, pixelated images and links that do not match the brand,” advises Cifas. If it’s on social media, report it immediately.
The ‘customer relations’ con
THE CON
If you’re failing to get a satisfactory response from a customer services team, it may be tempting to use social media to publicly call for action – but this is a golden opportunity for scammers, as one Telegraph Travel writer found to her detriment, after criminals posing as an airline swindled her for €600 (£520). But she’s not alone: several readers have contacted The Telegraph to say they’ve experienced this ploy.
“My bag didn’t make a flight recently from Sydney to the Gold Coast, so I tweeted the airline,” says Becky*, a content creator from Australia. “Almost straightaway I had a response from what I thought was the airline’s account, but it was actually a scam account with one letter different. I should have twigged when they asked for my number and time zone, as the airline only operates in Australia. I then received several WhatsApp calls from a strange number, which I didn’t answer. They messaged, and I responded to let them know I was onto them.”
The exchange then took an unexpected turn: ‘Can we be friends and invite you to Kenya[?],’ the scammer asked, before propositioning Becky. “I actually received replies from half a dozen spam accounts before the real airline got back to me,” she says.
THE ADVICE
“Scammers make fake online accounts or hack real accounts to commit a range of fraudulent activities,” says a spokesperson from the National Cyber Security Centre (NCSC). “Many social media sites have a process to verify accounts. If people are unsure or are sent links to information or to make a payment, they should visit the company’s official website and contact customer services directly. Scrutinise any unsolicited messages: most legitimate customer support teams typically will not contact someone out of the blue. If in doubt, search for official contact details online.”
The convincing ‘clone’ website
THE CON
You click on an online advert for a holiday package, or a particularly juicy special offer – and the website you land on seems legitimate. But cloned sites are among the most common online scams, warns Action Fraud: “At a quick glance it appears you are on a trusted site, whereas in reality the URL has been changed,” says a spokesperson.
“Here, victims assume they are on the genuine site and willingly hand over money at a great cost. Fake confirmation emails or booking references are sent, so some people only realise they have fallen victim to fraud when they are at the airport to check in and are told that their booking does not exist.”
THE ADVICE
Check the website’s URL via a service such as getsafeonline.org, and search for the company rather than clicking on a link from an email or social media advert.
The phoney holiday property
THE CON
You’ve found a holiday rental for a decent price, with good images – but is it too good to be true? In May, the Arsenius family in Greenwich hosted a group of stranded tourists in their living room after their home was listed on a booking platform without their knowledge – and despite platforms’ efforts, cautionary tales are rife on travel forums.
“It remains highly profitable for fraudsters to list properties they don’t own, take a booking and disappear with the money,” warns Telegraph Travel’s chief consumer editor Nick Trend.
THE ADVICE
Avoid any listing that features the host’s phone number or contact details, and if they ask for your details – rather than messaging via the booking website or app – consider it suspicious. Be extremely cautious of wire payments or bank transfers: keep it to a credit card, and only via the company’s official system.
“Try a reverse image search of the pictures,” advises The Telegraph’s industry editor Howard Mustoe. “If they exist elsewhere on the same website, a scam is afoot. Look at the address using Google Street View. Does it match?” If one vendor’s profile has multiple property listings, that can also be a red flag – as can bargain prices, and listings with no reviews.
*Names have been changed